On Her Vanity
On Her Vanity
Original Text
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, "Part I. Manon. VII. On Her Vanity" (The Love Sonnets of Proteus), Poems (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923): 40. PR 4149 B8A17
1What are these things thou lovest? Vanity.
2To see men turn their heads when thou dost pass;
3To be the signboard and the looking-glass
4Where every idler there may glut his eye;
5To hear men speak thy name mysteriously,
6Wagging their heads. Is it for this, alas,
7That thou hast made a placard of a face
8On which the tears of love were hardly dry?
9What are these things thou lovest? The applause
10Of prostitutes at wit which is not thine:
11The sympathy of shop-boys who would weep
12Their shilling's worth of woe in any cause,
13At any tragedy. -- Their tears and mine,
14What difference? Oh truly tears are cheap!
Publication Start Year
1881
Publication Notes
The Love Songs of Proteus (London: Kegan Paul, 1881): 8. PR 4149 B8L6 1881 Robarts Library
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2005
Rhyme
Form