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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  467. Woman

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Oliver Goldsmith. 1728–1774

467. Woman

WHEN lovely woman stoops to folly, 
  And finds too late that men betray, 
What charm can soothe her melancholy? 
  What art can wash her tears away? 
 
The only art her guilt to cover,         5
  To hide her shame from ev’ry eye, 
To give repentance to her lover, 
  And wring his bosom is—to die.