You know where you did despise

You know where you did despise

Original Text
letter from Alexander Pope to Henry Cromwell, June 24, 1710, in The Correspondence of Alexander Pope, ed. George Sherburn, Vol. I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956): 90.
3Little Legs, and little Thighs,
4And some things, of little Size,
5              You know where.
6You, tis true, have fine black eyes,
7Taper legs, and tempting Thighs,
8Yet what more than all we prize
9Is a Thing of little Size,
10              You know where.

Notes

1] Pope admits in his letter to Cromwell that he thinks of himself as "the Least Thing like a Man in England," partly thanks to the humiliating jesting of a lady recently about his small size. He continues: "some days after, to be reveng'd on her, I presented her amongst other Company the following Rondeau on that occasion ..." (89-90). This is the best evidence of his authorship of the waspish piece, which is accepted as genuine in Minor Poems, ed. Norman Ault and John Butt (London: Methuen, 1954): 61 (PR 3621 B82 Robarts Library). Back to Line
2] Tother: The other. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1726
Publication Notes
In Mist's Weekly Journal
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 2000.
Rhyme