GRAVELY to frown: to strut with solemn gait: With sad and serious smile each one to greet: All words to weigh and careful answers mete, As 'Messer, si,' or 'Messer, no,' sedate: Oft times an 'e cosi' t'interpolate, And with 'your servant' candour counterfeit, And (as if sharing the victorious feat) Of Florence and of Naples news relate: Call each man 'Signor,' haste your hand to kiss, And, as the Roman courtier's custom is, Hide poverty, and seeming wealth advance: Such in this Court are all the virtues had, Whence, often sick, ill-mounted and ill-clad, Beardless and penniless, returns to France. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SEA GODS: 3 by HILDA DOOLITTLE A FAREWELL by GEORGE GASCOIGNE ON A FOUNTAIN AND ITS ARCHITECT by PHILIP AYRES WHITE FOXGLOVE by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN A MIDSUMMER MEMORY by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |