MOTHER’S BONNET

This is her bonnet, with ribbons arrayed,

Clearly a calico ambuscade;

It dates from the days of the bricks of straw—

This is the bonnet my mother wore.

This is the bonnet my mother donned

When she walked with a youth by Plymouth Pond;

’Twas the night she wore her beads of jade,

And father fell into the ambuscade.

This is the bonnet I found in a chest,

Daisies and bows in a lavender nest;

It looks like the plumes the Persians wore,

But it must have had wonderful power to draw.