A GIRL, who has so many wilful ways <br />She would have caused Job's patience to forsake him; <br />Yet is so rich in all that's girlhood's praise, <br />Did Job himself upon her goodness gaze, <br />A little better she would surely make him. <br /> <br />Yet is this girl I sing in naught uncommon, <br />And very far from angel yet, I trow. <br />Her faults, her sweetnesses, are purely human; <br />Yet she's more lovable as simple woman <br />Than any one diviner that I know. <br /> <br />Therefore I wish that she may safely keep <br />This womanhede, and change not, only grow; <br />From maid to matron, youth to age, may creep, <br />And in perennial blessedness, still reap <br />On every hand of that which she doth sow.<br /><br />Dinah Maria Mulock Craik<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/her-likeness/
