Ah! why should ladies formed to please
With every charm of wit and beauty,
Seduced by listless love of ease
Thus deviate from the path of duty;
And when yon sun, that shines so bright,
Enlivens Earth and all brute natures
Obscure those brighter suns in night,
Ordained t’enliven two-legg’d creatures.
Alas! that sun, perceives your crime
And hides his head in clouds for sorrow
And will not, ‘till another time
Be seen — perchance not till tomorrow.
Cruel! not such the dames of old —
When days were long and nights much shorter
They rose with knights and barons bold,
And breakfasted on beef and porter.
And ere the cock’s voice rouse the morn,
On milk-white palfreys proudly riding
To chase the deer with hound and horn,
Sprang forth their tardy lover’s chiding;
While you regardless of my pain
Benumbed with cold, with hunger dying
Regardless of sagacious Jane
And prattling Charles for pity crying
Forgetful too, that lazy maids
Are self-condemned to wear the willow
You sleep and snore as if your heads
Some witch had bound fast to your pillow.
Oh break, sweet girls, the bonds of sleep! —
All blooming as I oft have seen you,
Descend — or to your couch I’ll creep
And warm my frozen limbs between you.
Wag