On ----

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Title:     On ----
Author: James Avis Bartley [More Titles by Bartley]

A brainless beauty, a would-be coquette,
A brow of marble, but a heart of jet;
An eye that shows no vestige of the deep
And stained thoughts that in her bosom sleep:
By day a vestal, but by night a bawd;
Her ways a riddle, her whole life a fraud;
At church an angel, but at home a shrew,
Cheating her mother, to her sire untrue;
Vain without talent, without merit proud;
By all who see her, still a fool allow'd;
Without all love, with but the show of truth,
She stares and simpers at the scornful youth;
Or ambling loosely on the village street,
While strangers sneer upon the fool they meet:
She lives and moves the true epitome
And climax of all d----mn'd Hypocrisy.
Here I enshrine her, where all time shall see
Her name preserv'd in deathless infamy.

[The end]
James Avis Bartley's poem: On ----

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