Poem of the Week
February 16, 2004
What is a Colorado girl? Cy Warman took on the challenge with February's first poem, "A Colorado Girl." In last week's poem, Job Straight, Pike's Peak Poet, of Posey County, Indiana, loved and lost the fickle Sarah Ann and fled West in the 1859 "Pike's Peak or Bust" rush.
Does Job Straight find love in Colorado? You'll find an answer, of sorts, in next week's poem.
Neat an' natty, sweet an' pretty,
Modest as the blushin' rose,
Wise an' winnin', bright an' witty,
Energy from head to toes.
Full o' grace in every movement,
Chaste an' spotless as the pearl,
Scarcely room fur one improvement
In the Colorado girl.
Walks the streets jest like she owned 'em.
Sunshine imitates her smile,
An' her eyes! why heaven loaned 'em
To her fur a little while.
Voice that makes the angels listen,
Soft as mountain brooklet's purl---
Ain't a beauty feature missin'
From the Colorado girl.
'Tain't to daughters o' the nabobs
Only that we sing this lay ;
Daughters o' the rural jaybobs
Out o' town are jest as gay.
An' the workin' girls, God bless 'em,
Are a string o' pretty pearls,
An' we're mighty glad to class 'em
'Mong our Colorado girls.
High or low in life, jest take 'em
As you see 'em on the street,
An' no girls on earth can make 'em
Take a hindmost beauty seat.
Dressed in silks or clad in woolens,
They're the same unequalled pearls---
Ain't no bargain counter cullin's
'Mong our Colorado girls.
--James Barton Adams
Reprinted from Breezy Western Verse, Denver, 1899.