Molly Odell on her Birthday

by her Father

Original Text

The Loyal Verses of Joseph Stansbury and Doctor Jonathan Odell, ed. Winthrop Sargent (Albany: J. Munsell, 1860): 110. Internet Archive.

2The orphan's cries, the widow's tears,

3This day my rising dawn of life

4Has measured five revolving years.

5Unconscious of the howling storm,

6No signs of shipwreck'd peace I see;

7For what, with all its bustling swarm,

8What is the noisy world to me?

9My needle and my book employ

10The busy moments of my day;

11And, for the rest, with harmless joy,

12I pass them in a round of play!

13And if, ere long, my vacant heart

14Is to be fill'd with Care and Pain,

15Still I shall bravely bear my part

16While Truth and Innocence remain.

1] Composed during the storm of the American revolutionary war with England in which Molly's father sided with the King. Back to Line

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2011

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