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Home  »  The Little Book of Society Verse  »  A Rhyme for Priscilla

Fuess and Stearns, comps. The Little Book of Society Verse. 1922.

By. Frank Dempster Sherman

A Rhyme for Priscilla

DEAR PRISCILLA, quaint and very

Like a modern Puritan,

Is a modest, literary,

Merry young American:

Horace she has read, and Bion

Is her favorite in Greek;

Shakespeare is a mighty lion

In whose den she dares but peek;

Him she leaves to some sage Daniel,

Since of Lions she’s afraid,—

She prefers a playful spaniel,

Such as Herrick or as Praed;

And it’s not a bit satiric

To confess her fancy goes

From the epic to a lyric

On a rose.

Wise Priscilla, dilettante,

With a sentimental mind,

Does n’t deign to dip in Dante,

And to Milton is n’t kind;

L’Allegro, Il Penseroso

Have some merits she will grant,

All the rest is only so-so,—

Enter Paradise she can’t!

She might make a charming angel

(And she will if she is good),

But it’s doubtful if the change’ll

Make the Epic understood:

Honey-suckling, like a bee she

Goes and pillages his sweets,

And it’s plain enough to see she

Worships Keats.

Gay Priscilla,—just the person

For the Locker whom she loves;

What a captivating verse on

Her neat-fitting gowns or gloves

He could write in catching measure,

Setting all the heart astir!

And to Aldrich what a pleasure

It would be to sing of her,—

He, whose perfect songs have won her

Lips to quote them day by day.

She repeats the rhymes of Bunner

In a fascinating way,

And you’ll often find her lost in—

She has reveries at times—

Some delightful one of Austin

Dobson’s rhymes.

O Priscilla, sweet Priscilla,

Writing of you makes me think,

As I burn my brown Manila

And immortalize my ink,

How well satisfied these poets

Ought to be with what they do

When, especially, they know it’s

Read by such a girl as you:

I who sing of you would marry

Just the kind of girl you are,—

One who does n’t care to carry

Her poetic taste too far,—

One whose fancy is a bright one,

Who is fond of poems fine,

And appreciates a light one

Such as mine.