 | Eclogues and monodramas |  |
Now Martha, ere she fell in widowhood,
Had in her cares of wisedom fretful grown:
A grievance-searching nature hers, most keen
To guage and probe the petty rubs and thorns
Of household custom: dwelling on her cares,
She bred them for herself from carelessness
And want of system; then on these complained
In needless-fretful whining, till she made
The mote annoyance bulge a beam of wrong,
And half believed herself an injured drudge,
The very model of a wife ill-used.
Had in her cares of wisedom fretful grown:
A grievance-searching nature hers, most keen
To guage and probe the petty rubs and thorns
78
She bred them for herself from carelessness
And want of system; then on these complained
In needless-fretful whining, till she made
The mote annoyance bulge a beam of wrong,
And half believed herself an injured drudge,
The very model of a wife ill-used.
| Eclogues and monodramas | |