The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
Frank Dempster Sherman (1860–1916)A Rime for Priscilla
D
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.
With a sentimental mind,
Doesn’t deign to dip in Dante,
And to Milton isn’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:
Honeysuckling, like a bee, she
Goes and pillages his sweets,
And it’s plain enough to see she
Worships Keats.
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 rimes 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 rimes.
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 doesn’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.