In the gay and crowded city
Where the tall and jostling roof-trees
Jealous seem of one another,
Jealous of the ground they stand on,
Each one thrusting out its neighbor
From the sunrise, or the sunset,
In a boarding school of fashion
Was Miranda comprehended,
Goal of her supreme ambition.
–Girls were there from different regions,
Distant States, and varying costumes,
She was beautiful they told her,
And her mirror when she sought it
Gave concurrent testimony.
–Many teachers met their classes
In this favorite Institution
Where accomplishments or studies
Were pursued as each selected,
Or their parents gave commandment.
But Miranda was impeded
In successful application,
By the consciousness of beauty
And the vanity it fosters.
–Very fond was she of walking
In the most frequented places,
Fondly fancying all beholders
Gazed on her with admiration.
Striking dresses, gay with colors
She disported and commended,
Not considering that the highest
Of attractions in a woman
Is simplicity of costume,
And a self-forgetful sweetness.
–Men with business over-laden,
Men of science, pondering axioms,
Men of letters, lost in reverie,
She imagined when they passed her
Gaz’d with secret admiration,
Ask’d in wonder, “_who can that be_?”
Backward turned perchance, to view her,
As she lightly glided onward.
–So completely had this beauty
Leagued with vanity, uprooted
Serious thought and useful purpose,
And the nobler ends of being,
That even in the solemn Temple
Where humility befitteth
All who offer adoration,
Close observance of the apparel
Of acquaintances or strangers,
And a self-display intruded
On the service of devotion,
While her fair cheek oft-times rested
Daintily on gloveless fingers
Where the radiant jewels sparkled
On a hand like sculptured marble.
* * * * *
Meantime in the rural mansion
Whence with gladness she departed,
Sate the mother and the sister
By the hearth-stone or the lamp-light,
Thinking of their loved Miranda,
Speaking of her, working for her,
Writing tender, earnest letters
To sustain her mid her studies,
Fearing that her health might suffer
By the labor and privation
That a year at school demanded.
–As the autumnal evenings lengthen’d,
Bertha with a filial sweetness
Sought her mother’s favorite authors,
And with perfect elocution
Made their sentiments and feelings,
Guests around the quiet fireside.
–Page of Livy, or of C
(Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, Place Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Beauty Poems, Woman Poems, Mothers Poems, Education Poems, Speaking Poems, Curiosity Poems, Emotions PoemsBased on Keywords: commended, accomplishments, impeded, bertha, elocution, lamp-light, roof-trees, livy, intruded, self-forgetful, concurrent