Classic Poem

Salina sauntering in a shade,
Her shoes were slipped, her gown untied,
A single pinner on her head;
And thus the easy trollop cried:

" Thus disengaged from all the crew,
Which on a lady's rising wait,
I can without constraint pursue
The pleasure of this soft retreat."

She oft had heard that poets chose
To be retired from noise and rout;
And fancied she could now compose,
If she could find a subject out.

By chance she had one pocket on;
Therein a pencil neatly made:
She pulled it out, and sat her down,
And thought she'd more than half her trade.

The back-side of a billet doux
Was ready to receive her notions:
The first thing she resolved to do,
To put in rhyme her morn devotions.

She then began with the sublime;
But found the theme so much above her,
She passed it till another time,
And chose to poetise her lover.

The great dispute, which name to use
Of Damon, Pythias, or Endymion,
Did, by the way, so damp her muse,
That soon she altered her opinion.

" Aid me, Melpomene!", she cries,
" The weakness of my sex to sing;
While I lament their vanities,
Do thou thy choicest numbers bring.

" Bless me! how trifling is the lass
Spends ever half the day in dressing;
It makes me hate a looking-glass,
And loathe a toilet past expressing."

No farther had the nymph the power;
Abrupt she threw the paper by;
Quo' she, " 'Tis an unlucky hour;
Walk one turn more, and then I'll try.

" Help, Thalia! comic strains to sing;
Apollo, pray attend it";
Just then her petticoat broke a string,
And forced her home to mend it.