A Paraphrase, By Dr. I.W.

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Why, Mistress Chloe, do you bother
  With prattlings and with vain ado
Your worthy and industrious mother,
  Eschewing them that come to woo?

Oh, that the awful truth might quicken
  This stern conviction to your breast:
You are no longer now a chicken
  Too young to quit the parent nest.

So put aside your froward carriage,
  And fix your thoughts, whilst yet there's time,
Upon the righteousness of marriage
  With some such godly man as I'm.

© Eugene Field