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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE SPRING BEAUTIES by HELEN GRAY CONE

First Line: THE PURITAN SPRING BEAUTIES STOOD FRESHLY CLAD FOR CHURCH
Last Line: "YOUNG MAIDS, BEWARE OF VANITY!"

THE Puritan Spring Beauties stood freshly clad for church;
A Thrush, white-breasted, o'er them sat singing on his perch.
"Happy be! for fair are ye!" the gentle singer told them,
But presently a buff-coat Bee came booming up to scold them.
"Vanity, oh, vanity!
Young maids, beware of vanity!"
Grumbled out the buff-coat Bee,
Half parson-like, half soldierly.

The sweet-faced maidens trembled, with pretty, pinky blushes,
Convinced that it was wicked to listen to the Thrushes;
And when, that shady afternoon, I chanced that way to pass,
They hung their little bonnets down and looked into the grass.
All because the buff-coat Bee
Lectured them so solemnly: --
"Vanity, oh, vanity!
Young maids, beware of vanity!"



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