'Of modern Manners let me sing,' The gay Flirtilla cries -- 'Manners, my dear! there's no such thing' -- Her grandmamma replies. 'You say,' cries Miss, 'in days of yore People were highly bred; But, thank my stars, those days are o'er, Those people are all dead. 'The world is now at ease and gay, Improved in every art, Fraught with diversions night and day To charm and fire the heart. 'To live in these enlightened days Is surely life indeed; Long may they last, Flirtilla prays, And joy to joy succeed! 'The mind, left free and uncontrolled, Makes pleasure all its aim; Youth will not now by age be told, "My dear, you are to blame". 'Such Gothic parents, thanks to Heaven, Are now but rarely found; Those, whom the fates to me have given, Live but in Pleasure's round. 'No tedious hours at home they pass In dull domestic care; To think, they say, would soon, alas! Bring wrinkles and grey hair. 'Oft have I heard them jeer and joke At wedlock's galling chain; Then cry, "Thank Heaven, 'tis now no yoke; We wed to part again". 'In former times, indeed, 'twas said That hearts were joined above, That women to their husbands paid Obedience, truth and love. 'But title, pin-money and dower Now join our hands for life; No other ties than these have power To couple man and wife. 'To these alone my thoughts aspire, On these I fix my heart; A wealthy husband I require -- I care not when we part.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHRISMUS IS A-COMIN' by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SONNET (ON AN OLD BOOK WITH UNCUT LEAVES) by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR A SONG TO DAVID by CHRISTOPHER SMART THE PROPHECY OF SAMUEL SEWALL by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER BRUCE: HOW KING ROBERT WAS HUNTED BY THE SLEUTH-HOUND by JOHN BARBOUR |