On Amira’s Reading Grandison in the Absence of Portius
The livelong day tho’ some folks say
That Miracles are over,
In silent guise Amira sighs
To mourn her absent Lover.
To Mourn alas! how hard the case
Without a kind condoler;
But – do not start, you have her heart
Tho’ others may console her.
No tell tale I, but when I spy
A fault (alas how common)
A fault so great, who would – but yet
Amira is a Woman.
So close engag’d be not enrag’d;
Be patient – if you can, Sir;
Nor Rake nor Beau could charm her so:
’Tis Grandison’s the Man, Sir!
Text: MS, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regents Park College, STE 3/3/1, p. 67; this poem first published in Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 2 (ed. Julia B. Griffin), pp. 159-60. Reference in the title is to Samuel Richardson's popular novel, The History of Sir Charles Grandison (1753), which suggests a relative date for the poem.