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blue skirts
wearing your blue skirts
climbing he walls
under the towers of your seminary
go talking to your teachers
old and contrary
without believing a word
wear white ribbons around your head
and think no more of what will come to pass
than a bluebird chattering in the grass
fluttering in the air
Practice your beauty, blue girls, before it fail;
And I will cry with my loud lips and publish
Beauty which all our power shall never establish,
It is so frail.
For I could tell you a story which is true;
I knew a woman with a terrible tongue,
Blear eyed, country eyed, fallen from blue,
and she was lovelier than any of you.
Blue Girls
by John Crowe Ransom
Twirling your blue skirts, travelling the sward
Under the towers of your seminary,
Go listen to your teachers old and contrary
Without believing a word.
Tie the white fillets then about your hair
And think no more of what will come to pass
Than bluebirds that go walking on the grass
And chattering on the air.
Practice your beauty, blue girls, before it fail;
And I will cry with my loud lips and publish
Beauty which all our power shall never establish,
It is so frail.
For I could tell you a story which is true;
I know a woman with a terrible tongue,
Blear eyes fallen from blue,
All her perfections tarnished -- yet it is not long
Since she was lovelier than any of you.
John Crowe Ransom
