To Caroline Maria Applebee [an Acrostic]

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Title:     To Caroline Maria Applebee [an Acrostic]
Author: Charles Lamb [More Titles by Lamb]

Caroline glides smooth in verse,
And is easy to rehearse;
Runs just like some crystal river
O'er its pebbly bed for ever.

Lines as harsh and quaint as mine
In their close at least will shine,
Nor from sweetness can decline,
Ending but with _Caroline_.

_Maria_ asks a statelier pace--
"_Ave Maria_, full of grace!"
Romish rites before me rise,
Image-worship, sacrifice,
And well-meant but mistaken pieties.

_Apple_ with _Bee_ doth rougher run.
Paradise was lost by one;
Peace of mind would we regain,
Let us, like the other, strain
Every harmless faculty,
Bee-like at work in our degree,
Ever some sweet task designing,
Extracting still, and still refining.

[The end]
Charles Lamb's poem: To Caroline Maria Applebee [an Acrostic]

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