Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Samuel MinturnPeck

1174 A Southern Girl

HER dimpled cheeks are pale;

She ’s a lily of the vale,

Not a rose.

In a muslin or a lawn

She is fairer than the dawn

To her beaux.

Her boots are slim and neat,—

She is vain about her feet,

It is said.

She amputates her r’s,

But her eyes are like the stars

Overhead.

On a balcony at night,

With a fleecy cloud of white

Round her hair—

Her grace, ah, who could paint?

She would fascinate a saint,

I declare.

’T is a matter of regret,

She ’s a bit of a coquette,

Whom I sing:

On her cruel path she goes

With a half a dozen beaux

To her string.

But let all that pass by,

As her maiden moments fly,

Dew-empearled;

When she marries, on my life,

She will make the dearest wife

In the world.