Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By Choice of a WifeRoyall Tyler (17571826)
F
Sighing soft for Hymen’s joys,
Would you shun the tricking arts,
Beauty’s traps for youthful hearts,
Would you treasure in a wife,
Riches, which shall last through life;
Would you in your choice be nice,
Hear Minerva’s sage advice.
Be not caught with shape, nor air,
Coral lips, nor flowing hair;
Shape and jaunty air may cheat,
Coral lips may speak deceit.
Girls unmask’d would you descry,
Fix your fancy on the eye;
Nature there has truth design’d,
’T is the eye, that speaks the mind.
Shun the proud, disdainful eye,
Frowning fancied dignity,
Shun the eye with vacant glare;
Cold indifference winters there.
Shun the eager orb of fire,
Gloating with impure desire;
Shun the wily eye of prude,
Looking coy to be pursued.
From the jilting eye refrain,
Glancing love, and now disdain.
Fly the fierce, satiric eye,
Shooting keen severity;
For nature thus, her truth design’d
And made the eye proclaim the mind.