Poem by Mary Wortley Montagu

Song - Rondeau

Finish these langours! Oh! I'm sick
Of dying airs, I know the trick;
Long since I've learn'd to well explain
Th'unmeaning cant of fire and pain,
And see through all the senseless lies
Of burning darts from killing eyes;
I'm tir'd with this continual rout
Of bowing low and leading out.
Finish, &c.
Finish this tedious dangling trade,
By which so many fools are made;
For fools they are, whom you can please
By such affected airs as these:
At opera near my box to stand,
And slyly press the given hand,
Thus may you wait whole years in vain;
But sure you would, were you in pain.

1. Town Eclogues: Monday; Roxana, or the Drawing-Room
2. An Elegy on Mrs. Thompson
3. To a Friend on His Travels
4. Verses Addressed to the Imitator...
5. Friday, the Toilette

Print

1114 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version