The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842) - Gredos ...

The Salamanca Corpus: The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire (1842)
When breakfast’s done, I take a walk
Where English girls their secrets talk;
1 Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser,
[155] .
But as for you, ye’re modest maids,
And shun the house to walk i’ the shades;
Often my circuit’s round the garden,
In which there’s no flower worth a farthing.
I sit me down and work a while,
But here, I think, I see you smile;
At work! quoth you;—but little’s done,
Thou lik’st too well a bit of fun.
At twelve, I dress my head so smart,
“Were there a man—he’d lose his heart;
My hair is turn’d the loveliest brown,
There’s no such hair in London town!
Nor do I use one grain of powder,
Either the violet or the other;
Nature adopts me for her child,—
Fair is her fruit when not run wild.
At one, the cloth is constant laid
By little Fan, our pretty maid.
Round her such native beauty glows,
You’d take her cheek to be some rose
Just spreading forth its blossom sweet,
Where red and white in union meet;
She’s prettier much than her young lady,
But that, you know, full easily may be.
“Well, Fanny, do you wish to go
To the dance there in the town below?”
“Yes;—but I dare not ask my mistress.”
“O! I’ll relieve you from that distress!”
I ask for her,—away she goes,
And shines a belle among the beaus.
[156]
Now, my good friends, by this you see
Rustics have balls as well as we;
And really as to different stations,
Or comforts in the various nations,
They’re more upon an equal par
Than we imagine them by far.