Wouldn’t You Like to Know? By J. G. Saxe — 117
I know a girl with teeth of pearl
And shoulders white as snow;
She lives—ah! well,
I must not tell—
Wouldn’t you like to know?
Her sunny hair is wondrous fair,
And wavy in its flow.
Who made it less
One little tress—
Wouldn’t you like to know?
Her eyes are blue (celestial hue)
And dazzling in their glow.
On whom they beam
With melting gleam—
Wouldn’t you like to know?
Her lips are red and finely wed,
Like roses ere they blow.
What lover sips
Those dewy lips—
Wouldn’t you like to know?
Her fingers are like lilies fair,
When lilies fairest grow.
Whose hand they press
With fond caress—
Wouldn’t you like to know?
Her foot is small, and has a fall
Like snow-flakes on the snow.
And where it goes
Beneath the rose—
Wouldn’t you like to know?
She has a name, the sweetest name
That language can bestow.
’Twould break the spell
If I should tell—
Wouldn’t you like to know?
We (Home Journal) wish to be learned in the subtle science of the softer sex. We aspire to know, at least, what it is that makes woman so adorable as magnetism pronounces her to be, and we have seen nothing so tributary to this science as an article in “Once a Month,” entitled “The Good that hath been said of Woman.” From the pleasant little periodical we speak of (edited by a younger brother of our own), we quote thus largely:—“One day the Fairy Blue descended upon earth with the courteous intention of distributing to all her daughters, inhabitants of different lands, the treasures and favours she brought with her. Her dwarf, Amaranth, sounded his horn, and immediately a young girl of each nation presented herself at the foot of the throne of Fairy Blue. This happened a long time before the revolution of July, 1830. The good Fairy Blue said to all her friends: ‘I desire that none of you shall have to complain of the gift I am about to make you. It is not in my power to give each of you the same thing; but such want of uniformity in my largesses, should that deprive them of all merit?’ As time is precious to the fairies, they say but little. Fairy Blue here finished her speech, and commenced the distribution of her gifts. She gave to the young girl who represented the Castiles, hair so black and so long that she could make a mantilla of it. To the Italian girl she gave eyes, sparkling and brilliant as an eruption of Vesuvius at midnight. To the Turkish, an embonpoint round as the moon, and soft as eider-down. To the English, an aurora-borealis, to tint her cheeks, her lips, her shoulders. To the German, such teeth as she had herself, and what is not worth less than pretty teeth, but which has its price, a feeling heart, and one profoundly disposed to love. To the Russian girl she gave the distinction of a queen. Then, passing to detail, she placed gaiety upon the lips of a Neapolitan girl, wit in the head of an Irish, good sense in the heart of a Flemish; and when she had no more to give, she prepared to take her flight. ‘And I?’ said the Parisian girl, retaining her by her blue tunic. ‘I had forgotten you.’ ‘Entirely forgotten, Madam?’ ‘You were too near me, and I did not perceive you. But what can I do now? The bag of gifts is exhausted.’”