That public attention should have been so little engaged by this poem
is a fact in one respect somewhat remarkable, as contrasting with the
notice which the "Ambarvalia" has received. Nevertheless,
independently of the greater importance of "the Bothie" in length and
development, it must, we think, be admitted to be written on sounder
and more matured principles of taste,--the style being sufficiently
characterized and distinctive without special prominence, whereas not
a few of the poems in the other volume are examples rather of style
than of thought, and might be held in recollection on account of the
former quality alone.
Her First Season
He gazed her over, from her eyebrows down
Even to her feet: he gazed so with the good
Undoubting faith of fools, much as who should
Accost God for a comrade. In the brown
Of all her curls he seemed to think the town
Would make an acquisition; but her hood
Was not the newest fashion, and his brood
Of lady-friends might scarce approve her gown.
If I did smile, 'twas faintly; for my cheeks
Burned, thinking she'd be shown up to be sold,
And cried about, in the thick jostling run
Of the loud world, till all the weary weeks
Should bring her back to herself and to the old
Familiar face of nature and the sun.
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