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The Bride-Choosing

Originally Published: March 07, 2008

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I was trying to read my 14-month old daughter a Grimm's Fairy Tale this morning, but poets of her generation are narratively-challenged, so I post it here instead.
The Bride-Choosing
There was once a young Shepherd who wished to get married; but although he knew three Sisters, each one was as pretty as the others, and the choice was therefore so difficult, that he did not know to which to give the preference. So he asked his Mother's advice; and she told him to invite all three of them to supper, and to place a cheese before them and observe how they cut it. The youth did so; and the first Sister ate her cheese, rind and all; the second cut off the rind so hastily, that she cut with it some of the good cheese and threw it all away; but the third Sister pared the rind off very carefully, neither too much nor too little. The Shepherd thereupon told all this to his Mother, and she said, "Take the youngest Sister to wife."
And he did so, and lived contentedly and happily with her all his life long.

I would have picked the first sister: Better in bed.

Daisy Fried is the author of five books of poetry: My Destination (forthcoming 2026); The Year the City...

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