THROUGH her forced, abnormal quiet Flashed the soul of frolic riot, And a most malicious laughter lighted up her downcast eyes; All in vain I tried each topic, Ranged from polar climes to tropic,— Every commonplace I started met with yes-or-no replies. For her mother—stiff and stately, As if starched and ironed lately— Sat erect, with rigid elbows bedded thus in curving palms; There she sat on guard before us, And in words precise, decorous, And most calm, reviewed the weather, and recited several psalms. How without abruptly ending This my visit, and offending Wealthy neighbors, was the problem which employed my mental care; When the butler, bowing lowly, Uttered clearly, stiffly, slowly, "Madam, please, the gardener wants you,"— Heaven, I thought, has heard my prayer. "Pardon me!" she grandly uttered; Bowing low, I gladly muttered, "Surely, madam!" and, relieved, I turned to scan the daughter's face: Ha! what pent-up mirth outflashes From beneath those penciled lashes! How the drill of Quaker custom yields to Nature's brilliant grace! Brightly springs the prisoned fountain From the side of Delphi's mountain, When the stone that weighed upon its buoyant life is thrust aside; So the long-enforced stagnation Of the maiden's conversation Now imparted fivefold brilliance to its evervarying tide. Widely ranging, quickly changing, Witty, winning, from beginning Unto end I listened, merely flinging in a casual word; Eloquent, and yet how simple! Hand and eye, and eddying dimple, Tongue and lip together made a music seen as well as heard. When the noonday woods are ringing, All the birds of summer singing, Suddenly there falls a silence, and we know a serpent nigh: So upon the door a rattle Stopped our animated tattle, And the stately mother found us prim enough to suit her eye. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE TO TRANQUILLITY by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE BRIDGE BUILDER by WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE AN OLD BATTLE-FIELD by FRANK LEBBY STANTON HIS WORST ENEMY by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE LIFE-POWER by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON |