Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AFTERNOON, by FANNIE STEARNS DAVIS GIFFORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AFTERNOON, by                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Some one is coming to call
Last Line: Down in the daffodil leaves —
Alternate Author Name(s): Davis, Fannie Stearns
Subject(s): Household Employees; Peasantry; Servants; Domestics; Maids


Some one is coming to call.

Up the red brick path between daffodils dancing
I see white ruffles that blow:
A parasol, dipping against the sun.
It is some one stout, and warm in her new white gloves.

My old green apron is smudged with the garden-mould.
My hands are the hands of a peasant-woman. My hair
Comes tumbling down into my eyes.

I wish I could lie down flat like a child
And hide in the grass, while she rings and rings,
And sticks her card under the door with a sigh,
And puffs away down the path.
I wish — but the parasol bobs,
And she bobs like a mandarin's lady,
Smiling and bridling and beckoning.

If I were a daffodil, in an apron of green and gold —

But there she stands on the path,
And her gloves are so new they squeak with newness and stoutness,
And I know she will talk of the weather and stay an hour —

If I were a daffodil —
Or a little cool blinking bug
Down in the daffodil leaves —





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