The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-06-14
[Shoe and Leather Reporter.l
The Poetry of the Feet.

Poets, in all ages have been lavish in their
praises of the human foot. Many beautiful
passages on the subject occur in the Bible, and
Bishop Kitto, in his concordance of the Scrip
lures, says that "When the person is eminent
for rank or holiness, the mention of the feet
denoted among the ancents, the respect and
reverence of the speaker"
The older pro:ane poets, make many allu-
sions to the feet. Homer calls Thetis the "sil-
ver-footed queen" Bathss, in his Idyllium,
says OF his subject:
"Charming Bombyce, you my numbers greet,
How lovely fair and beautiful your feet.'
In the scene whero Paris judges the beauties
of the three goddesses, and awards the apple to
Venus, he says:
'"Their gait he marked as gracefully they moved
And round their feet his eye sagacious roved."
The old English poets made many pretty al
lusons to the feet. Among them Herrick thus
compliments a lady:
"Her pretty feet, like smies did creep
little out, and then,
As il they started at bo-peep,
Did soon draw in again."
Butler imagines flowers springing up in the
pathway OF one of his heroines
.whereer you tread. your foot shall set
The primrose and the violet"
In an anonymous volume published in 1868
are the following beautiful lines:
"How her feet tempt; how soft and light she treads
Fearing to wake the flowers from their beds;
Yet from their sweet green pillows, everywhere
They start and gaze about to see my fair.
Look how that pretty, modest columbne
Hangs down its head to view those feet of thine;
See the fond motion of the strawberrie
Creeping on earth to go along with thee;
The lovely violet makes after, too,
Unwilling yet my dear, to part with you.
The knot grass and the daisies catch thy toes,
TO kiss my fair ones feet before she goes"
Very pretty is the above conceit, and here is
still another from an anonymous poet of the
olden time:
"Do not fear to put thy feet
Naked in the river, sweet;
Think not newt. nor leech, nor toad
Will bite thy foot where thou hast trod."
Sir John Sucking in his ballad Of the We'd
ding, says of the bride:
''Her feet beneath her pettcoat
Like little mice stole in and out"
Shakespeare abounds with illusions to the
feet. He speaks of Diomede walking:
'"Tis, he, ken the manner of his gait
He rises on the toe; that spirit of his
In aspiration lifts him from the earth "
Ellis foot mercurial his martial stride"
"His foot spurns back the ocean,"
OF some of his female characters he says:
"Her lip, nay, her foot speaks"
'Shore's wife hath pretty foot"
and again
"Tread them with thy tender feeling feet.'
| And in many other instances that greatest
| of earth's poets shows his appreciation Of that
| portion of the "human form divine"
The poets have not been 50 laudatory of the
| foot covering, but we select couple Of STAN
| zas which, from the practical nature of the ad-
| vice given, will form a fitting closing for this
article. The first is from Chaucer's Pilgrim
| age, written some five hundred years ago, and
| slightly Anglcized:
"Of shoes and boots, new and fair,
| Look at least, thou have pair,
And that they fit so properly
| That these rude men may utterly
Marvel, when they sit SO plain,
| How they come on and off again."
| What kind of boot this was we at a loss to i'm
| agine. Bootmakers of the present day do not
| usually fill these requirements.
| The poet Gay devotes eight lines to this sub
iect, which might we'll be written up in letters
| of gold:
| "Let firm, well-hammered soles protect thy feet
Through freezing SHOWS and ri aims and soaking
| sleet.
| Should the big last extend the shoe too wide
Each stone will wrench the unwary step aside;
| The sudden turn may stretch the swelling vein,
| The cracking joint unhinge, or ankle sprain.
And, when too short the modest shoes are worn,
You'll Judge the seasons by your shooting corn,''