| Alexander Pope (1688–1744). Complete Poetical Works. 1903. | | | | Early Poems: Imitations of English Poets | | Earl of Dorset: Artemisia |
| | | THO’ Artemisia talks by fits | |
| Of councils, classics, fathers, wits, | |
| Reads Malbranche, Boyle, and Locke, | |
| Yet in some things methinks she fails: | |
| ’T were well if she would pare her nails, | 5 |
| And wear a cleaner smock. | |
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| Haughty and huge as High Dutch bride, | |
| Such nastiness and so much pride | |
| Are oddly join’d by fate: | |
| On her large squab you find her spread, | 10 |
| Like a fat corpse upon a bed, | |
| That lies and stinks in state. | |
| |
| She wears no colours (sign of grace) | |
| On any part except her face; | |
| All white and black beside: | 15 |
| Dauntless her look, her gesture proud, | |
| Her voice theatrically loud, | |
| And masculine her stride. | |
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| So have I seen, in black and white, | |
| A prating thing, a magpie hight, | 20 |
| Majestically stalk; | |
| A stately worthless animal, | |
| That plies the tongue, and wags the tail, | |
| All flutter, pride, and talk. | | | | |
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