| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1174. A Southern Girl |
| | | By Samuel Minturn Peck |
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| HER dimpled cheeks are pale; | |
| She ’s a lily of the vale, | |
| Not a rose. | |
| In a muslin or a lawn | |
| She is fairer than the dawn | 5 |
| To her beaux. | |
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| Her boots are slim and neat,— | |
| She is vain about her feet, | |
| It is said. | |
| She amputates her r’s, | 10 |
| But her eyes are like the stars | |
| Overhead. | |
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| On a balcony at night, | |
| With a fleecy cloud of white | |
| Round her hair— | 15 |
| Her grace, ah, who could paint? | |
| She would fascinate a saint, | |
| I declare. | |
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| ’T is a matter of regret, | |
| She ’s a bit of a coquette, | 20 |
| Whom I sing: | |
| On her cruel path she goes | |
| With a half a dozen beaux | |
| To her string. | |
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| But let all that pass by, | 25 |
| As her maiden moments fly, | |
| Dew-empearled; | |
| When she marries, on my life, | |
| She will make the dearest wife | |
| In the world. | 30 |
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