Musa Burschicosa :: :: University of Virginia Library

I can like a hundred women,
I can love a score,
Only one with heart's devotion
Worship and adore.
Mary, Jessie, Lucy, Nancy,
With a fine control
Hold my eye or stir my fancy;
Dora fills my soul.

Dainty doves are doves of Venus,
(Plumy, soft delight),
But my dove (O wonder!), Dora,
Hath an eagle's might.
Doves are pretty, doves are stupid,
But who Dora loves
Finds Minerva masqued in Cupid,
Strength in downy doves.

Like the sun's face brightly dancing
On the shimmering sea,
But, like Ocean, deep is Dora,
Strong, and fair, and free.
Chirping like a gay Cicala
In a sunny bower,
But a Muse in that Cicala
Sings with thoughtful power.

Like a beck that bickers blithely
Down the daisied lea,
So her bright soul bursts and blossoms
In spontaneous glee.
Full of gamesome show is Dora;
But behind the scene
Sits the lofty will of Dora
Thronèd like a queen.

Lovely marvel! oak and lily
From one root came forth,
Twined in leafy grace together
At my Dora's birth.
Mellow Eve, and bright Aurora,
Sober Night, and Noon,
Dwell, divinely blent, in Dora,
To a jarless tune.

I can like a hundred women,
I can love a score,
Only one with heart's devotion
Worship and adore.
Mary, Jessie, Lucy, Nancy,
With a fine control
Hold my eye or stir my fancy;
Dora fills my soul.