308. When Lovely Woman Stoops. Oliver Goldsmith. 1909-14. English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald. The Harvard Classics

English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

308. When Lovely Woman Stoops

Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)


WHEN lovely woman stoops to folly,
And finds too late that men betray,—
What charm can soothe her melancholy,
What art can wash her guilt away?

The only art her guilt to cover,	5
To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover,
And wring his bosom, is—to die.