Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By What Can It Mean?George P. Morris
I
For I am only seventeen;
Why think I then of Harry?—
What can it mean—what can it mean?
Beside the brook, or on the green,
How tenderly he greets me!
What can it mean—what can it mean?
A blush upon my cheek is seen,
And then my heart so flutters—
What can it mean—what can it mean?
Or, smiling, calls me “fairy queen,”
I sigh and look so stupid!—
What can it mean—what can it mean?
I ’m growing pale and very lean;
My spirits often fail me!
What can it mean—what can it mean?
Such a thought at seventeen:
I ’ll go and ask my mother
What it can mean—what it can mean.