Poem by Alexander Pope

On a Certain Lady at Court

I know the thing that’s most uncommon:
         (Envy be silent, and attend!) 
I know a reasonable woman, 
         Handsome and witty, yet a friend.  

Not warp’d by passion, awed by rumour, 
         Not grave throo’ pride, or gay thro’ 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 conspire to praise her, 
         The woman’s deaf, and does not hear.

1. Epistle to Miss Blount, On Her Leaving the Town, After the Coronation
2. On the Countess of Burlington Cutting Paper
3. Universal Prayer
4. Chorus of Youths and Virgins
5. Occasioned by Some Verses of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham

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