A New England Valentine
O, SWEET little maid of a Puritan line,
O, dear little maid of a Puritan town,
On the morn of that saint whom they name Valentine,
I am asking a boon,—and I pray do not frown;
For, coy little Puritan maid of to-day,
I ask but a quaint little Puritan "Yea."
Look around on the walls of your Puritan home,
Where your prim lady ancestors hang in a row,
In quaint little kerchiefs, in cap and in comb;
Take counsel by them, dear, for well do you know
You would not be here, little maiden, to-day
If they had not spoken that Purtian "Yea."
Your pride is in them, and your faith and your love;
Ah, is there not some overflowing for me?
They lived long ago, and they hang far above,
I am nearer and younger,—Ah, cannot it be?
Then send me an answer this Valentine's day,
But pray it be not that cold Puritan "Nay!"
poem by Abbie Farwell Brown from The New England Magazine / Volume 21, Issue 6 (1897)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Related quotes
The result has been that although few conservative Presbyterian churches actually worship in the Puritan way, the Puritan theology of worship remains the standard orthodoxy among them. This discrepancy sometimes leads to guilty consciences.
quote by John Frame
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Never let what you don't know disturb your faith in what you do know.
Life has become a little less sweet, death a little less bitter, heaven a little more real.
Love rules without a sword and binds without a cord.
The Puritan has passed; the Catholic remains.
quote by William H. O'Connell
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Marry a child of the devil and you're going to have problems with your father-in-law.
Who Lights The Fire?
Who lights the fire-that forth so gracefully
And freely frolicketh the fairy smoke?
Some pretty one who never felt the yoke-
Glad girl, or maiden more sedate than she.
Pedant it cannot, villain cannot be!
Some genius, may-be, his own symbol woke;
But puritan, nor rogue in virtue's cloke,
Nor kitchen-maid has done it certainly!
Ha, ha! you cannot find the lighter out
For all the blue smoke's pantomimic gesture-
His name or nature, sex or age or vesture!
The fire was lit by human care, no doubt-
But now the smoke is Nature's tributary,
Dancing 'twixt man and nothing like a fairy.
poem by George MacDonald
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Men of New England, I hold you to the doctrines of liberty which ye inherit from your Puritan forefathers.
quote by Caleb Cushing
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A puritan is a person who pours righteous indignation into the wrong things.
quote by Gilbert K. Chesterton
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A little knowledge is dangerous. Drink deep, or taste not the puritan waters.
You know the puritan ethic that started out four centuries ago in this country, needless to say - at least for the moment - a thing of the past - from what I can tell.
quote by James Young
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I wish to Christ I could make up a really great lie. Sometimes, after an interview, I say to myself, 'Man, you were so honest - can't you have some fun? Can't you do some really down and dirty lying?' But the puritan in me thinks that if I tell a lie, I'll be punished.
quote by Willem Dafoe
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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For a Jewish Puritan of the middle class, the novel is serious, the novel is work, the novel is conscientious application why, the novel is practically the retail business all over again.
quote by Howard Nemerov
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I wish to Christ I could make up a really great lie. Sometimes, after an interview, I say to myself: "Man, you were so honest - can't you have some fun? Can't you do some really down and dirty lying?" But the puritan in me thinks that if I tell a lie, I'll be punished.
quote by Willem Dafoe
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Troubleshooter’s bonhomie with a Maiden
The scenario is blurring and who is blaming?
In the flowery garden a butterfly flies around a blossom.
Why the gardener in a scandal?
If you feel it’s a liaison better be blindfold.
What is this unnecessary gossip my dear puritan in a lover’s sanctuary?
*A Tomboy writes a poem to her hostile strict father from a hostel.
poem by Nimal Dunuhinga
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