Appendix F - Family poems

Summary

‘Miss Lloyd has now sent to Miss Green’—Miss Green's reply—by Mrs Austen [see pp. 243, 707–8]

I’ve often made clothes

For those who write prose,

But ‘tis the first time

I’ve had orders in rhyme—.

Depend on’t, fair Maid,

You shall be obeyed;

Your garment of black

Shall sit close to your back,

And in every part

I’ll exert all my art;

It shall be the neatest,

And eke the completest

That ever was seen—

Or my name is not Green!

‘Verses to rhyme with “Rose” ‘.— [a group of four poems including one by JA, see pp. 243, 708–9]

M^rs. Austen.

This morning I ‘woke from a quiet repose,

I first rub’d my eyes & I next blew my nose.

With my stockings and shoes I then cover’d my toes

And proceeded to put on the rest of my cloathes.

This was finish’d in less than an hour I suppose;

I employ’d myself next in repairing my hose

’Twas a work of necessity, not what I chose;

Of my sock I’d much rather have knit twenty Rows.—

My work being done, I looked through the windows

And with pleasure beheld all the Bucks & the Does,

The Cows & the Bullocks, theWethers & Ewes.—

To the Lib’ry each morn, all the Family goes,

So I went with the rest, though I felt rather froze.

My flesh is much warmer, my blood freer flows

When I work in the garden with rakes & with hoes.

And now I beleive I must come to a close,

For I find I grow stupid e’en while I compose;

If I write any longer my verse will be prose. —

Miss Austen

Love, they say is like a Rose;

I’m sure t’is like the wind that blows,

For not a human creature knows

How it comes or where it goes.

It is the cause of many woes,

It swells the eyes & reds the nose,

And very often changes those

Who once were friends to bitter foes. —

But let us now the scene transpose

And think no more of tears & throes.