Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/549

 ALEXANDER POPE 451 On a certain Lady at Court

KNOW a thing that 's most uncommon; (Envy, be silent and attend') I know a reasonable woman,

Handsome and witty, yet a friend.

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��Not warp'd by passion, awed by rumour;

Not grave through pride, nor gay through folly; An equal mixture of good-humour

And sensible soft melancholy.

'Has she no faults then (Envy says), Sir?'

Yes, she has one, I must aver* When all the world conspires to praise her,

The woman 's deaf, and does not hear.

452 Elegy to the Memory of an

Unfortunate Lady

WHAT bcck'ning ghost, along the moonlight shade Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade ? 'Tis she' but why that bleeding bosom gored, Why dimly gleams the visionary sword ? O, ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell, Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well? To bear too tender or too firm a heart, To act a lover's or a Roman's part? Is there no bright reversion in the sky For those who greatly think, or bravely die?

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