AH Nellie, you were always fair, and you were always good and true, <br />I've sung about your wealth of hair, and praised your eyes, so soft and blue, <br />Your charms are many I confess, but now my pen in hand I take <br />To praise in my poor humble way the strawb'ry shortcake that you make. <br /> <br />It may be other maidens play a better bridge whist game than you, <br />That other wives for suffrage make far better speeches than you do, <br />And other women, it may be, know more of Browning and of Keats, <br />But you make shortcake, Nellie dear, that every other woman's beats. <br /> <br />And were you lacking in those charms that cheer the eye and warm the heart, <br />Were you not fair to look upon — an angel's very counterpart — <br />Were you not gentle, patient, kind, did you not soothe my every ache, <br />I still should love you, Nellie, for the strawb'ry shortcake that you make.<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-ode-to-nellie/
