"MY darter?" Yes, thet's Lizy Ann, Ez full o' grit ez any man 'T you ever see! She does the chores Days when I can't git out-o'-doors 'Account o' this 'ere rheumatiz, And sees to everything there is To see to here about the place, And never makes a rueful face At housework, like some women do, But does it well -- and cheerful, too. There's mother -- she's been bedrid now This twenty year. And you'll allow It takes a grist o' care and waitin' To tend on @3her@1. But I'm a-statin' But jest the facts when this I say: There's never been a single day That gal has left her mother's side Except for meetin', or to ride Through mud and mire, through rain or snow, To market when I couldn't go. "She's thiry-five or so?" Yes, more Than that. She's mighty nigh twoscore. But what's the odds? She's sweet and mild To me and mother as a child. There doesn't breathe a better than Our eldest darter, Lizy Ann! "Had offers?" Wal, I reckon; though She ne'er told me nor mother so. I mind one chap -- a likely man -- Who seemed clean gone on Lizy Ann, And yet she let the feller slide, And he's sence found another bride. The roses in her cheeks is gone, And left 'em kinder pale and wan. Her mates is married, dead, or strayed To other places. Youth nor maid No longer comes to see her. Yet You'll hear no murmur of regret. "My life's a part o' heaven's own plan," She often says. Thet's Lizy Ann. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FOUR BROTHERS by CARL SANDBURG EFFIGY OF A NUN (SIXTEENTH CENTURY) by SARA TEASDALE FRAGMENT, ON THE BACK OF THE POET'S MS. OF CANTO I OF 'DON JUAN' by GEORGE GORDON BYRON A RUNNABLE STAG by JOHN DAVIDSON THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE TO SHELLEY by JOHN BANISTER TABB |