Albeit the Venice girls get praise For their sweet speech and tender air, And though the old women have wise ways Of chaffering for amorous ware, Yet at my peril dare I swear, Search Rome, where God's grace mainly tarries, Florence and Savoy, everywhere, There's no good girl's lip out of Paris. The Naples women, as folk prattle, Are sweetly spoken and subtle enough; German girls are good at tattle, And Prussians make their boast thereof; Take Egypt for the next remove, Or that waste land the Tartar harries, Spain or Greece, for the matter of love, There's no good girl's lip out of Paris. Breton and Swiss know nought of the matter, Gascony girls or girls of Toulouse; Two fishwomen with a half-hour's chatter Would shut them up by threes and twos; Calais, Lorraine, and all their crews, (Names enow the mad song marries,) England and Picardy, search them and choose, There's no good girl's lip out of Paris. Prince, give praise to our French ladies For the sweet sound their speaking carries; 'Twixt Rome and Cadiz many a maid is, But no good girl's lip out of Paris. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A POET THAT DIED YOUNG by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY A WISH by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE SHEPHEARDES CALENDER: NOVEMBER by EDMUND SPENSER NEXT DAY; IN THE TRAIN by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA THE COLLEGE, 1917 by HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG A NEW HAMPSHIRE BOY by MORRIS GILBERT BISHOP HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 41 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |