 | The poetical works of John Godfrey Saxe |  |
A CHARMING WOMAN.
A charming woman, I've heard it said
By other women as light as she;
But all in vain I puzzle my head
To find wherein the charm may be.
Her face, indeed, is pretty enough,
And her form is quite as good as the best,
Where Nature has given the bony stuff,
And a clever milliner all the rest.
By other women as light as she;
But all in vain I puzzle my head
To find wherein the charm may be.
Her face, indeed, is pretty enough,
And her form is quite as good as the best,
Where Nature has given the bony stuff,
And a clever milliner all the rest.
Intelligent? Yes,—in a certain way;
With a feminine gift of ready speech;
And knows very well what not to say
Whenever the theme transcends her reach.
But turn the topic on things to wear,
From an opera cloak to a robe de nuit,—
Hats, basques, or bonnets,—'t will make you stare
To see how fluent the lady can be!
With a feminine gift of ready speech;
And knows very well what not to say
Whenever the theme transcends her reach.
But turn the topic on things to wear,
From an opera cloak to a robe de nuit,—
Hats, basques, or bonnets,—'t will make you stare
To see how fluent the lady can be!
Her laugh is hardly a thing to please;
For an honest laugh must always start
From a gleesome mood, like a sudden breeze,
And hers is purely a matter of art,—
A muscular motion made to show
What Nature designed to lie beneath
The finer mouth; but what can she do,
If that is ruined to show the teeth?
For an honest laugh must always start
From a gleesome mood, like a sudden breeze,
And hers is purely a matter of art,—
A muscular motion made to show
What Nature designed to lie beneath
The finer mouth; but what can she do,
If that is ruined to show the teeth?
To her seat in church—a good half-mile—
When the day is fine she is sure to go,
Arrayed, of course, in the latest style
La mode de Paris has got to show;
And she puts her hands on the velvet pew
(Can hands so white have a taint of sin?)
And thinks—how her prayer-book's tint of blue
Must harmonize with her milky skin!
When the day is fine she is sure to go,
Arrayed, of course, in the latest style
La mode de Paris has got to show;
And she puts her hands on the velvet pew
(Can hands so white have a taint of sin?)
And thinks—how her prayer-book's tint of blue
Must harmonize with her milky skin!
Ah! what shall we say of one who walks
In fields of flowers to choose the weeds?
Reads authors of whom she never talks,
And talks of authors she never reads?
She's a charming woman, I've heard it said
By other women as light as she;
But all in vain I puzzle my head
To find wherein the charm may be.
In fields of flowers to choose the weeds?
Reads authors of whom she never talks,
And talks of authors she never reads?
She's a charming woman, I've heard it said
By other women as light as she;
But all in vain I puzzle my head
To find wherein the charm may be.
| The poetical works of John Godfrey Saxe | |