January, 1795
Mary Robinson
1757 to 1800
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Pavement slipp’ry, people sneezing,
Lords in ermine, beggars freezing;
______ gluttons dainties carving,
Genius in a garret starving.
Lofty mansions, warm and spacious;
Courtiers cringing and voracious;
Misers scarce ______ wretched heeding;
Gallant soldiers fighting, bleeding.
Wives who laugh ______ passive spouses;
Theatres, and meeting-houses;
Balls, where simp’ring misses languish;
Hospitals, and groans of anguish.
Arts and sciences bewailing;
______ drooping, credit failing;
Placemen mocking subjects loyal;
Separations, weddings royal.
Authors who can’t earn a dinner;
Many a subtle ______ a winner;
Fugitives for shelter seeking;
Misers hoarding, tradesmen breaking.
Taste and talents quite deserted;
All the laws of ______ perverted;
Arrogance o’er merit soaring;
Merit silently deploring.
Ladies ______ night and morning;
Fools the works of genius scorning;
______ dames for girls mistaken,
Youthful damsels quite forsaken.
Some ______ luxury delighting;
More in talking than in fighting;
Lovers old, and beaux decrepid;
Lordlings empty and insipid.
Poets, painters, ______ musicians;
Lawyers, doctors, politicians:
Pamphlets, newspapers, and odes,
Seeking ______ by diff’rent roads.
Gallant souls with empty purses;
Gen’rals ______ fit for nurses;
School-boys, smit with martial spirit,
Taking ______ of vet’ran merit.
Honest men who can’t get places,
______ who shew unblushing faces;
Ruin hasten’d, peace retarded;
Candor spurn’d, and art rewarded.