Many of the lines are brightened by jeux d'esprit, depending for point upon Spanish words in which similarity of sound or spelling covers a totally different meaning. The archness of the little verse which follows is more comprehensible and decidedly epigrammatic:—
"TO GUADALUPE DE LA FUENTE.
"Once Cupid's eyes were clear,
Open, and kind;
But, alas! you, my dear.
He chanced to find;
Only one glance he gave,—
Since then, who paints the knave
Must paint him blind."
Concha is at once the name of a sea-shell, and the pretty Spanish diminutive of the name Concepcion. In sober prose it would be questionable whether a pearl was ever found in any thing more romantic than an oyster-shell. But who would be such an iconoclast as to overthrow a poetic image for the forlorn comfort of setting up in its place a paltry fact in natural history?
