Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REFORMATION, by ANNE FINCH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REFORMATION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A gentleman, most wretched in his lot
Last Line: You all to ruin bring, and every part confound.'
Alternate Author Name(s): Kingsmill, Anne; Winchilsea, Countess Of
Subject(s): Marriage; Reform & Reformers; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


A GENTLEMAN, most wretched in his lot,
A wrangling and reproving wife had got,
Who, though she curbed his pleasures and his food,
Called him 'My dear', and did it for his good,
Ills to prevent: she of all ills the worst,
So wisely froward, and so kindly cursed.
The servants too experiment her lungs,
And find they've breath to serve a thousand tongues.
Nothing went on; for her eternal clack,
Still rectifying, set all matters back;
Nor town, nor neighbours, nor the court could please,
But furnished matter for her sharp disease.
To distant plains at length he gets her down,
With no affairs to manage of her own,
Hoping from that unactive state to find
A calmer habit grown upon her mind:
But soon returned he hears her at his door,
As noisy and tempestuous as before;
Yet mildly asked, how she her days had spent
Amidst the quiet of a sweet content,
Where shepherds tend their flocks, and maids their pails,
And no harsh mistress domineers or rails.
'Not rail!', she cries -- 'Why I, that had no share
In their concerns, could not the trollops spare;
But told 'em they were sluts -- And for the swains,
My name a terror to them still remains;
So often I reproved their slothful faults,
And with such freedom told 'em all my thoughts,
That I no more amongst them could reside.'
'Has then, alas!', the gentleman replied,
'One single month so much their patience tried,
Where you by day, and but at seasons due,
Could with your clamours their defects pursue?
How had they shrunk, and justly been afraid,
Had they with me one curtain-lecture heard?
Yet enter, Madam, and resume your sway:
Who can't command must silently obey.
In secret here let endless faults be found,
Till, like reformers who in states abound,
You all to ruin bring, and every part confound.'





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