I call’d my Muse, the rustic came
With Seward’s garland on her brows;
Loose was her hair, her robe the same;
You never saw so wild a blowze.
“Provoking jade!” said I, and frown’d,
“To fair Bettina can I send you?
“Where courtly nicety is found,
“Will that appearance recommend you?
“Your person’s good, but you quite spoil it,
“I’m sick to death of flowing tresses;
“I wish to heaven you’d get a toilet,
“And learn to know what taste in dress is.
“Your manners, too, are most absurd,
“A wood nymph in good truth you are;
“You make me blush, upon my word:
“Why, you’ll meet all the Graces there.”
“Bless me!” she cried, “what’s here to do?
“I never saw you in such fuss;
“Though beauty makes a fool of you,
“Must I become a changling thus?
“Your worship, too, mistakes the matter,
“I’ll set you right and then depart;
“Though Fashion may amuse and flatter,
“Bettina does but laugh at art.
“From observation nice I speak,
“And characters from traits are known;
“The rose and lilly on her cheek
“(Lord how you stare!) are both her own.”
(Francis Noel Clarke Mundy)
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