Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THREE PORTRAITS by GAMALIEL BRADFORD

First Line: HER MANNERS WERE PERFECTLY DAINTY
Last Line: I HOPE TO UNDERSTAND HER.
Subject(s): GRANDPARENTS; PORTRAITS; GRANDMOTHERS; GRANDFATHERS; GREAT GRANDFATHERS; GREAT GRANDMOTHERS;
Her manners were perfectly dainty,
Her breeding had been of the best;
Yet mighty few maidens of twenty
Could match her for measureless zest.

She sounded your sayings demurely,
With eyes of an innocent hue;
But I think her great-grandmother surely
Would shudder at all that she knew.

LIFE'S HONEY

She teazed him early,
She teazed him late,
Till he grew surly
And cursed his fate.

Then she turned winning
As summer skies,
Or Eve ere sinning,
In Paradise.

She stole life's honey,
His heart's content,
And all his money --
And then she went.

THE PROBLEM

She laughs at every thing almost
And weeps with equal ease.
She quivers like a blossom, tossed
In any April breeze.

I love her; but I must confess,
With my accustomed candor,
The more I live with her, the less
I hope to understand her.



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