The spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1840-1844, 1841-11-05
3ooetrp.
AN EVERYDAY CHARACTER.


TO claim the gazer's smile or tear,
To duh you wing, or daub yoVr tory:
1t is beyond poets skill,
To form the slightest notion, whether
We e'er shall walk through one quadrille,
Or look upon one moon together.
You're very prctty-al the world
Are talking of your bright brow's splendor,
And of your locks, so softly cured,
And for your hands so white and slender:
Some think you're blooming in Bengal;
Some say yo're blowing in the city;
Some know you're nobody at all;
only feel, you're very pretty.
But bless my heat! us very wrong;
You're making all our bellies ieIocous;
Anne never saw chin so long,
And Laura thinks your dress atrocious;'
And Lady Jane, who now and then
Is taken for.thc village steepe,
Is sure you can't be four feet ten,
And wonders at the taste oipeople.
Soon past the praises of face;
Swift fades The very best vermlIlion;
Fame rides most prodlgous pace;
Oblivion follows on the piIllon;
And all, who, in those sultry rooms,
To day have stared, and pushed, and tainted,
VIII soon forget your pearls and plumes,
As ilthoy never had been painted.
You'll be lorgotten-as old debts
BY persons who are used to borrow;
Forgoten-as the sun that sits,
When shines new one on the morrow;
Forgotteu--like he luscious peach
That blessed the school-boy last September;
Forao,ten-likc a maiden speech,
Which all men praise, but none remember.
Yet, ere you sink into the stream,
That whelms alike, sage, saint and martyr,
And soldiers sword, and minstrcl's theme,
And Cummings wit, and Gra,tan's charter,
Here of the fortunes of your youth
Nv fancy weaves her dim conjecture,
Which have, perhaps, AS much OF truth
As passions vows, or Cobbct's lectures
Vast in the north or in the south,
That summer -breezes rocked your cradle
And had you in your baby mouth
A wooden or silver laidle'
And was your first, unconscious sleep,
BY Brownie banned, or blessed by fairy?
And did YOU wake TO laugh or weep?
And were YOU christened Maud or Nary
lIlu was your EllneI CHIlCu fuHl Slueo
And did he bet at Ascot races?
And did he chatter commonplace
And did he ill score of places:
And did your ladv-moihers charms
Consist in pcklngS, brongs, baStings'
Or did she prate about the arms
Her brave lorclalher won at Hastings
Where were Won finished ? tell me where!
Was it at Chelsea, or at Chswick'
Had you the ordinary share
Orbooks and blackboard, harp and physic
And did they bid you Danish pride,
And mind your oriental tnlng?
And did You learn how Dido died,
And who found out the art of printing!
And are you fond Of lanes and BROOKS
A yotury of the sylvan muses.
Or do Won con the little books
Which Baron Brougham aud Vauy diliuscs
Or do YOU love to knit and sew,
The fashionable worlds Arachno'
Or do YOU caner down the Row,
Upon very long-,ailed hackney
And do You love your brother James,
And do you pet his mares and settlers
And have your friends romantic Names
And do YOU write them long, long letters
And are yOu-snCe the world bcgaIi-
All women are--a little splleiul:
And don't YOU dotc on Mabran'
And don't you think Tom Moore deish'iul'
see they've brought You flowers to-day,
Delicious food for eyes and noses
But carelesSy You turn away
From all the pinks and all the roses;
Say, is that fond look sent in search
Of one whose look as iondly answers
And is he, lairesi. in the church,
Or is hc-aint h2--in the La
And is your love motley pagc
OF black and white, half joy, half sorrow.
Are you to waite till you're Of age
Or are you to be his Tomorrow
Or do they bid You, in their scorn,
Your pure and snlcss flame 10 smolher'
Is he so very meanly born?
Or ale you married to anolher'
What c'cr you arc, at last, odicu!
| think ii is your boundcn duty
To let the rhymes coin for you,
BE priced by all who prize your beauty,
From YOU seek no gold nor fame;
From You fear no cruel structures;
! wish some girls that could name
Were half as silent as their plcturers!
pDAFD