Gateway to the Classics: Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 3 by Arthur Quiller-Couch
 
Oxford Book of English Verse, Part 3 by  Arthur Quiller-Couch

On a Certain Lady at Court

I know a thing that's most uncommon;

(Envy, be silent and attend!)

I know a reasonable woman,

Handsome and witty, yet a friend.


Not warp'd by passion, awed by rumour;

Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly;

An equal mixture of good-humour

And sensible soft melancholy.


"Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?"

Yes, she has one, I must aver:

When all the world conspires to praise her,

The woman's deaf, and does not hear.

— Alexander Pope
1688–1744   


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