The college girls of a former day Were earnest, sweet, demure and prim; Calisthenics mild was their wildest fray, While to mission strands they sang their way With many a gospel hymn. They wore no golf-skirts trimmed in red, Nor did they twang the archer's bow; Butler and logic were daily bread, And their manners left us naught to dread; Those girls of long ago. But the modern girl! Alas for the hour Which rigged her out in togs of state; Which gave her gladiatorial power, With equal suffrage as her dower; This maid that's up to date! The rostrum waits on her rosy lip And the baton knows her practised hand; While her arguments for man's comradeship Make many a rash opponent trip; This girl that holds the land! She's taller than her brothers are, And swings along with a noble gait; She beats them over the vaulting bar; In running and swimming, she leaves them afar; This last "Try-out" of fate. But the blood throbs warm in the lifted chest, Whatever her trend to the passing show; And as long as her gowns are the tailor's best, We know that a feminine heart's in the breast As surely as long ago. But the world shall be glad for the new as the old, And hearth-stones as bright as they were of yore; For love flutters alike 'neath the kerchief's fold Or the sweater that's lettered in blue or gold; So a toast to the girls both new and old, Of today and the years before! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOMING BRAVES by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TO BE LIKED BY YOU WOULD BE A CALAMITY by MARIANNE MOORE OCTAVES: 21 by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON PORTRAIT OF A MOTOR CAR by CARL SANDBURG UPLANDS IN MAY by CARL SANDBURG IN THE CARPENTER'S SHOP by SARA TEASDALE |