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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A PORTRAIT FROM THE LIFE by JONATHAN SWIFT

First Line: COME SIT BY MY SIDE, WHILE THIS PICTURE I DRAW
Last Line: HAS THIS ANY LIKENESS TO GOOD MADAM SHERIDAN
Subject(s): DRAWING;

Come sit by my side, while this picture I draw:
In chattering a magpie, in pride a jackdaw,
A temper the devil himself could not bridle,
Impertinent mixture of busy and idle,
As rude as a bear, no mule half so crabbed,
She swills like a sow, and she breeds like a rabbit,
A housewife in bed, at table a slattern,
For all an example, for no one a pattern.
Now tell me, friend Thomas, Ford, Grattan, and merry Dan,
Has this any likeness to good Madam Sheridan



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