Literary Lady, The
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan 1751 – 1816
What motley cares Corilla's mind perplex,
Whom maids and metaphors conspire to vex!
In studious dishabille behold her sit,
A lettered gossip and a household wit;
At once invoking, though for different views,
Her gods, her cook, her milliner and muse.
Round her strewed room a frippery chaos lies,
A checkered wreck of notable and wise,
Bills, books, caps, couplets, combs, a varied mass,
Oppress the toilet and obscure the glass;
Unfinished here an epigram is laid,
And there a mantua-maker's bill unpaid.
There new-born plays foretaste the town's applause,
There dormant patterns pine for future gauze.
A moral essay now is all her care,
A satire next, and then a bill of fare.
A scene she now projects, and now a dish;
Here Act the First, and here, Remove with Fish.
Now, while this eye in a fine frenzy rolls,
That soberly casts up a bill for coals;
Black pins and daggers in one leaf she sticks,
And tears, and threads, and bowls, and thimbles mix.
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Submitted by halel on July 15, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 51 sec read
- 2 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKK |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,015 |
Words | 167 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 22 |
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"Literary Lady, The" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/54374/literary-lady,-the>.
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