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From The Humorous Poetry of the English Language from Chaucer to Saxe, with Notes, Explanatory and Biographical, by James Parton; Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1884; pp. 70-71.
546O MARYANNE, you pretty girl,
Intent on silky labor,
Of sempstresses the pink and pearl,
Excuse a peeping neighbor !
Those eyes, forever drooping, give
The long brown lashes rarely ;
But violets in the shadows live, —
For once unvail them fairly.
Hast thou not lent that flounce enough
Of looks so long and earnest ?
Lo, here ’s more “penetrable stuff,”
To which thou never turnest.
Ye graceful fingers, deftly sped !
How slender, and how nimble !
O might I wind their skeins of thread,
Or but pick up their thimble !
How blest the youth whom love shall bring,
And happy stars embolden,
To change the dome into a ring,
The silver into golden !
Who ’ll steal some morning to her side
To take her finger’s measure,
While Maryanne pretends to chide,
And blushes deep with pleasure.
Who ’ll watch her sew her wedding-gown,
Well conscious that it is hers,
Who ’ll glean a tress, without a frown,
With those so ready scissors.
Who ’ll taste those ripenings of the south,
The fragrant and delicious —
Don’t put the pins into your mouth,
O Maryanne, my precious !
71
I almost wish it were my trust
To teach how shocking that is ;
I wish I had not, as I must,
To quit this tempting lattice.
Sure aim takes Cupid, fluttering foe,
Across a street so narrow ;
A thread of silk to string his bow,
A needle for his arrow !
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