delight
Fairy feet are deftly dancing;
Where the young Euphrosyne
Reigns the mistress of the scene,
Chasing gloom, and courting glee,
With the merry tambourine;
Many a form of fairy birth,
Many a Hebe, yet unwon,
Wirt, a gem of purest worth,
Lively, laughing Pleasanton;
Vails and Tayloe will be there,
Gay Monroe so debonair,
Hellen, pleasure's harbinger,
Ramsay, Cottringers and Kerr;
Belles and matrons, maids and madams,
All are gone to Mrs. Adams'!

Wend you with the world to-night?
Juno in her court presides,
Mirth and melody invite,
Fashion points, and pleasure guides;
Haste away then, seize the hour,
Shun the thorn and pluck the flower.
Youth, in all its spring-time blooming,
Age the guise of youth assuming,
Wit through all its circles gleaming,
Glittering wealth and beauty beaming;
Belles and matrons, maids and madams,
All are gone to Mrs. Adams'!

The "Mrs. Sullivan" referred to was Sarah Bowdoin Winthrop, the wife of
George Sullivan of Boston, son of Governor James Sullivan of
Massachusetts; while "Winning Gales" was the wife of Joseph Gales,
editor of _The National Intelligencer_. "Forsyth" was the wife of
Senator John Forsyth of Georgia, who subsequently served as Secretary of
State during Jackson's administration; and "the Crowninshields in blue"
were daughters of Benjamin W. Crowninshield, Secretary of the Navy under
Madison and Monroe. "The Pierces, with their heavenly faces," were
handsome Boston women who in after life became converts to the Roman
Catholic faith and entered convents. The "Vails" were Eugene and Aaron
Vail, who were proteges of Senator William H. Crawford, of Georgia. They
married sisters, daughters of Laurent Salles, a wealthy Frenchman living
in New York. Aaron Vail accompanied Martin Van Buren to England as
Secretary of Legation and for a season, after Van Buren's recall, acted
as _Charge d'affaires_. "Tayloe" was Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, the
distinguished Washingtonian. "Ramsay" was General George Douglas Ramsay,
the father of Rear Admiral Francis M. Ramsay, U.S.N.; and "Hellen" was
Mrs. Adams's niece, who subsequently became her daughter-in-law through
her marriage to her son, John Adams. President Monroe attended this ball
and both he and John Quincy Adams were somewhat criticised for their
plain attire, which was in such striking contrast with the elabor