RPO -- Phoebe Cary : "When Lovely Woman"

Phoebe Cary (1824-1871)

"When Lovely Woman"

1When lovely woman wants a favor,

2 And finds, too late, that man won't bend,

3What earthly circumstance can save her

4 From disappointment in the end?

5The only way to bring him over

6 The last experiment to try,

7Whether a husband or a lover,

8 If he have feeling, is, to cry!

Notes

1] Cf. Oliver Goldsmith's song in The Vicar of Wakefield:

When lovely woman stoops to folly,
And finds too late that men betray,
What charm can soothe her melancholy?
What art can wash her guilt away?
The only art her guilt to cover,
To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover,
And wring his bosom, is -- to die.

Online text copyright © 2011, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: Phoebe Cary, Poems and Parodies (Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854): 198. Internet Archive. OCLC Id: 00271599. Poems of Alice and Phoebe Cary with Notes (A. L. Burt, n.d.): 138-39. York University PS 1263 A25 B8
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 2000.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/21

Rhyme: abab

Other poems by Phoebe Cary