Convolvulus by Sophia Thrale

  • Posted on: 20 September 2009
  • By: David Thrale

Portrait of Sophia ThraleThe other two Girls leave me tomorrow they will do very well; Sophy has a Turn for making Verses, bad enough to be sure, yet such a Turn shews Genius in a Girl who was nine Years old only a fortnight ago. The following is one of her Attempts forsooth upon a wild Convolvulus which She picked up here between Brighthelmston & Rottenden.1

Convolvulus

Fairest Product of the Field,
Scent and Fragrance thou dost yield,
Oh lovely, beauteous Flow’r!
Thy Charms indeed are more than I can tell,
They please the Sight, the Sense, the Smell,
And shew thy wondrous Pow’r.—

Others

Two other childish poem of Sophia’s in her own hand, survive in her mother's later scrap-book, 'Minced Meat for Pyes'. One of these, on Streatham, appears in Merritt's book Piozzi Marginalia.2 The other reads as follows:

O Harriot Harriot dearest love
Always Quiet as a Dove
Always pretty gentle Mild
Never Boisterous Rude or Wild
Shun all Quarrels, shun all Strife
You will find enough in Life
I never will Abandon you
But keep as Close as P to Q
Believe me what I say is true.

Written by Hester Lynch Thrale. Thraliana entry dated 6 August 1780.