sister, fie for shame, no more!

give this ignorant babble o’er,

nor, with little female pride,

things above your sense deride.

why this foolish underrating

of my first attempts at latin?

know you not each thing we prize

does from small beginnings rise?

’twas the same thing with your writing

which you now take such delight in.

first you learnt the down-stroke line,

then the hairstroke thin and fine,

then a curve and then a better,

till you came to form a letter;

then a new task was begun,

how to join them two in one;

till you got (these first steps pass’d)

to your fine text-hand at last.

so, though i at first commence

with the humble accidence,

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and my study’s course affords

little else as yet but words,

i shall venture in a while

at construction, grammar, style,

learn my syntax, and proceed

classic authors next to read,

such as wiser, better, make us,

sallust, phædrus, ovid, flaccus:

all the poets with their wit,

all the grave historians writ,

who the lives and actions show

of men famous long ago;

even their very sayings giving

in the tongue they used when living.

think not i shall do that wrong

either to my native tongue,

english authors to despise,

or those books which you so prize;

though from them awhile i stray,

by new studies call’d away,

them when next i take in hand,

i shall better understand;

for i’ve heard wise men declare

many words in english are

from the latin tongue derived,

of whose sense girls are deprived

28

’cause they do not latin know.

but if all your anger grow

from this cause, that you suspect,

by proceedings indirect,

i would keep (as miser’s pelf)

all this learning to myself;

sister, to remove this doubt,

rather than we will fall out,

(if our parents will agree)

you shall latin learn with me.