Part 2 — A CERTAIN YOUNG LADY
Reading edition
There's a certain young lady, Who's just in her hey-day, And full of all mischief, I ween; So teasing! so pleasing! Capricious! delicious! And you know very well whom I mean.
With an eye dark as night, Yet than noonday more bright, Was ever a black eye so keen? It can thrill with a glance, With a beam can entrance, And you know very well whom I mean.
With a stately step—such as You'd expect in a duchess— And a brow might distinguish a queen, With a mighty proud air, That says "touch me who dare," And you know very well whom I mean.
With a toss of the head That strikes one quite dead, But a smile to revive one again; That toss so appalling! That smile so enthralling! And you know very well whom I mean.
Confound her! de'il take her!— A cruel heart-breaker— But hold! see that smile so serene. God love her! God bless her! May nothing distress her! You know very well whom I mean.
Heaven help the adorer Who happens to bore her, The lover who wakens her spleen; But too blest for a sinner Is he who shall win her, And you know very well whom I mean.
Washington Irving [1783-1859]