PEOPLE seldom smiled at little Maggie Swartz: One look at her put the spirits out of sorts -- Freckles on her nose, her hands all warts -- Just the kind of maiden no gay youth courts. Her eyes were narrow and a washed-out gray; Her hair was skimpy and brushed the wrong way, And hid like a waif behind her large, fat ears. You couldn't look on Maggie Swartz and keep back tears. No one ever left a kiss on Maggie's wide mouth: Her life was as barren as a field in drouth; Yet everything within her that was hidden from view Was lovely as a rose and as fragrant, too. Her thoughts were as pure as the dawn upon the sea, But through those ugly eyes and mouth they couldn't get free -- And no one had a kinder heart anywhere about: O, if God had only made her inside out! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RETROSPECTION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ADELAIDE AND JOHN WILKES BOOTH by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: OSCAR HUMMEL by EDGAR LEE MASTERS VICTOR RAFOLSKI ON ART by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SONNET: 50 by GEORGE SANTAYANA THE UNDERGRADUATE KILLED IN BATTLE; OXFORD, 1915 by GEORGE SANTAYANA |