Skip to content
Linespedia

Our Yankee Girls

By Oliver Wendell Holmes

Topics: classic

Let greener lands and bluer skies,     If such the wide earth shows,     With fairer cheeks and brighter eyes,     Match us the star and rose;     The winds that lift the Georgian's veil,     Or wave Circassia's curls,     Waft to their shores the sultan's sail, -     Who buys our Yankee girls?     The gay grisette, whose fingers touch     Love's thousand chords so well;     The dark Italian, loving much,     But more than one can tell;     And England's fair-haired, blue-eyed dame,     Who binds her brow with pearls; -     Ye who have seen them, can they shame     Our own sweet Yankee girls?     And what if court or castle vaunt     Its children loftier born? -     Who heeds the silken tassel's flaunt     Beside the golden corn?     They ask not for the dainty toil     Of ribboned knights and earls,     The daughters of the virgin soil,     Our freeborn Yankee girls!     By every hill whose stately pines     Wave their dark arms above     The home where some fair being shines,     To warm the wilds with love,     From barest rock to bleakest shore     Where farthest sail unfurls,     That stars and stripes are streaming o'er, -     God bless our Yankee girls!

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Let greener lands and bluer skies,..."

"Our Yankee Girls" is a quintessential example of Oliver Wendell Holmes's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Let greener lands and bluer skies,..." by Oliver Wendell Holmes

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"The house was crammed from roof to floor,     Heads piled on heads at every door;     Half dead with August's seething heat     I crowded on an"

"Yon whey-faced brother, who delights to wear     A weedy flux of ill-conditioned hair,     Seems of the sort that in a crowded place     One el"

""How many have gone?" was the question of old     Ere Time our bright ring of its jewels bereft;     Alas! for too often the death-bell has toll"

"We count the broken lyres that rest     Where the sweet wailing singers slumber,     But o'er their silent sister's breast     The wild-flowers"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Oliver Wendell Holmes

About Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) was an American poet, physician, and essayist. His poems "Old Ironsides" and "The Chambered Nautilus" are American classics. He was part of the Fireside Poets group.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"The house was crammed from roof to floor,     Head..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.