American Girl

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2><SPAN name="THE_AMERICAN_GIRL" id="THE_AMERICAN_GIRL" />THE AMERICAN GIRL.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i4">The maid for man to love,<br/></span> <span class="i4">All other forms above,<br/></span> <span>Is she whose home adorns the loam of this fair land of mine:<br/></span> <span class="i4">American in sire,<br/></span> <span class="i4">She's born of love and fire,<br/></span> <span>And dominates the heart of man as by a right divine.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i4">By rhyming swain pursued,<br/></span> <span class="i4">She meets the puling dude,<br/></span> <span>Whose hopes to win are centered in his pale Platonic plan;<br/></span> <span class="i4">American in heart,<br/></span> <span class="i4">She spurns his petty part,<br/></span> <span>Then, speeds him to the army mess to prove himself a man.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i4">With tact burned in the bone,<br/></span> <span class="i4">She stands herself, alone,<br/></span> <span>The peer of peers of ancient years, for highest functions fit;<br/></span> <span class="i4">American in head<br/></span> <span class="i4">Who woos her, she <i>may</i> wed,<br/></span> <span>If he hath grace, and wit, and worth, and sense, and soul and grit.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span><SPAN name="Page_3" id="Page_3" />Alive, alert and sweet,<br/></span> <span class="i4">In rounded poise, complete,<br/></span> <span>Come any day what will or may, she meets the world at par;<br/></span> <span class="i4">American in soul,<br/></span> <span class="i4">She brooks no man's control,<br/></span> <span>But brings to <i>one</i> a crystal love as stainless as a star.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i4">Who wins, she weds, retains,<br/></span> <span class="i4">She lives, she loves, she reigns<br/></span> <span>Through home and hall, and over all the sovereign of the scene;<br/></span> <span class="i4">American in dower,<br/></span> <span class="i4">She knows her native power,<br/></span> <span>And holds the heart of him she loves, a Woman and a Queen.<br/></span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />