Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7.djvu/404

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392
SWIFT'S POEMS.

We hate your empty prattle;
And vow and swear 'tis true,
There's more in one child's rattle.
Than twenty fops like you.





THE BEAU'S REPLY

TO THE

FIVE LADIES ANSWER.


WHY, how now dapper Black,
I smell your gown and cassock,
As strong upon your back,
As Tisdal[1] smells of a sock.

To write such scurvy stuff!
Fine ladies never do't;
I know you well enough,
And eke your cloven foot.

Fine ladies, when they write,
Nor scold, nor keep a splutter:
Their verses give delight,
As soft and sweet as butter.

But Satan never saw
Such haggard lines as these:
They stick athwart my maw,
As bad as Suffolk cheese.

  1. A clergyman in the North of Ireland, who had made proposals of marriage to Stella.

THE