SOPHIA’S
REPLY
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My child—said
a mother, with caution severe—
I hope you will never forget,
That modesty’s traces ought always appear
In the form where true beauties
are met.
’Tis this is the glory and pride of the fair
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Adding
lustre to every grace—
Surrounded by gallants, then strictly beware
Of that full gaze of thine
in their face! [Page 195]
Let thy long lashes bind thy regards to the earth,
And evade the rude glance
of each youth—
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Thus
emotions of rapture thou’lt quickly give birth,
And the flame thou awaken’st
be truth.
Look downward, Mama!—said the maid in surprise—
Hide the beauties that nature
has given?—
As well might we think of averting our eyes
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From
the blue smiling lustre of heaven.
In periods gone by, might the maidens consent
To retract their young charms
from the view,
When religion’s or coquetry’s arrows
were spent—
But at this day, such tales!—and
from you!—
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The men may look down, as subdued by our charms,
Till we bid the mild suiters
look up—
And fear or exult, in the power of our arms,
Impell’d by despair
or by hope. [Page 196]
From man we emerge, as the sunbeams of light
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Cluster
round the meridian sun’s rim—
Then why not the purest best arrows of sight,
Be incessantly levelled
at him! [Page 197]
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