Retrospection and Introspection/Girlhood Composition
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GIRLHOOD COMPOSITION
FROM childhood I was a verse-maker. Poetry suited my emotions better than prose. The following is one of my girlhood productions.
Alphabet and Bayonet
| If fancy plumes aerial flight, |
| Go fix thy restless mind |
| On learning's lore and wisdom's might, |
| And live to bless mankind. |
| The sword is sheathed, 't is freedom's hour, |
| No despot bears misrule, |
| Where knowledge plants the foot of power |
| In our God-blessed free school. |
| Forth from this fount the streamlets flow, |
| That widen in their course. |
| Hero and sage arise to show |
| Science the mighty source, |
| And laud the land whose talents rock |
| The cradle of her power, |
| And wreaths are twined round Plymouth Rock, |
| From erudition's bower. |
| Farther than feet of chamois fall, |
| Free as the generous air, |
| Strains nobler far than clarion call |
| Wake freedom's welcome, where |
| Minerva's silver sandals still |
| Are loosed, and not effete; |
| Where echoes still my day-dreams thrill, |
| Woke by her fancied feet. |