Songs, Ballads, and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

My husband means well,
Good, honest, humdrum man;
And really I can hardly tell,
How first our feuds began.
It was a match of my Mama's,
No match at all, I mean,
Unless declining fifty has
One feature like fifteen.

II

I long'd to leave the prosing set,
Papa, and durance vile,
I long'd to have a landaulet,
And four neat greys in style:
Sir William's steeds were thorough bred,
He wooed me fourteen days,
And I consented, though his head
Was greyer than his greys.

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III

For, Oh! I pin'd for pineries,
Plate, pin-money, and pearls;
For smiles from Royal Highnesses,
Dukes, Marquisses, and Earls.
Sir William was in Parliament,
And noticed by the King,
So when he made his settlement,
It was a settled thing.

IV

He grumbles now! a woman's whim
Turns night to day, he says,
As if he thought I'd sit with him,
Benighting all my days!
At six he rises, as for me,
At twelve I ring my bell;
Thus we're wound up alternately,
Like buckets in a well.