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Acknowledgments
Notes Nathaniel Cotton's (1705-1788) "To A Child Five Years Old" first appeared in Dodsley's Collection of Poems, 1755. Susan's alterations to this poem may be part of a literary assignment at the Academy. She has replaced the original direct reference to The Garden of Eden with a cross-reference to Milton's description in Book IV of Paradise Lost. She has also generalized the poem by removing Polly's name, has changed much of the punctuation, grouped the lines into quatrains, and made a peculiar change in the sense of the penultimate line. (Oxford Book of Children's Verse, Iona and Peter Opie, Oxford University Press, 1973):
To a Child Five Years Old
Fairest flower, all flowers excelling,
Which in Eden's garden grew;
Flowers of Eve's embowered dwelling
Are, my fair one, types of you.
Mark, my Polly, how the roses
Emulate thy damask cheek;
How the bud its sweets discloses -
Buds thy opening bloom bespeak.
Lilies are by plain direction,
Emblems of a double kind;
Emblems of thy fair complexion,
Emblems of thy fairer mind.
But, dear girl, both flowers and beauty
Blossom, fade, and die away;
Then pursue good sense and duty,
Evergreens that ne'er decay.
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