 | The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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XXII
Sonnet
Of an ill-favoured Lady
Just look, Manetto, at that wry-mouthed minx;
Merely take notice what a wretch it is;
How well contrived in her deformities,
How beastly favoured when she scowls and blinks.
Why, with a hood on (if one only thinks)
Or muffle of prim veils and scapularies,—
And set together, on a day like this,
Some pretty lady with the odious sphinx;—
Why, then thy sins could hardly have such weight,
Nor thou be so subdued from Love's attack,
Nor so possessed in Melancholy's sway,
But that perforce thy peril must be great
Of laughing till the very heart-strings crack:
Either thou'dst die, or thou must run away.
| The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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