Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CLARA TO CLOE; EPISTLE FROM CITY LADY TO COUNTRY COUSIN, by JOHN GODFREY SAXE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CLARA TO CLOE; EPISTLE FROM CITY LADY TO COUNTRY COUSIN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dear cloe - I'm deeply your debtor
Last Line: C.
Subject(s): Cities; Urban Life


DEAR CLOE, -- I'm deeply your debtor
(Though the mail was uncommonly slow)
For the very agreeable letter
You wrote me a fortnight ago.
I know you are eagerly waiting
For all that I promised to write,
But my pen is unequal to stating
One half that my heart would indite.

The weather is terribly torrid;
And writing's a serious task;
The new style of bonnet is horrid;
And so is the new-fashioned basque;
The former -- but language would fail
Were its epithets doubly as strong --
The latter is worn with a tail
Very ugly and tediously long!

And then as to crinoline -- Gracious!
If you only could see Cousin Ruth!
The pictures, for once, are veracious,
And editors utter the truth!
I know you will think it a pity;
And every one makes such a sneer of it;
But there is n't a saint in the city
Whose skirts are entirely clear of it!

And then what a fortune of stuff
To cover the skeleton over! --
Charles says the idea is enough
To frighten a sensible lover;
And, pretending that we are to blame
For every financial declension,
Swears husbands must soon do the same,
If wives have another "extension"!

The town is exceedingly dull,
And so is the latest new farce;
The parks are uncommonly full,
But beaux are deplorably scarce;
They're gone to the "Springs" and the "Falls,"
To exhibit their greyhounds and graces,
And recruit at -- what Frederick calls --
The Brandy-and-Watering Places!

Since my former epistle, which carried
The news of that curious plot, --
Of Miss S. who ran off -- and was married;
Of Miss B. who ran off -- and was not, --
There is n't a whisper of scandal
To keep gentle ladies in humor,
And Gossip, the pleasant old Vandal,
Is dying for want of a rumor!
CLARA.

P.S. -- But was n't it funny? --
Mrs. Jones, at a party last week
(The lady so proud of her money,
Of whom you have oft heard me speak),
Appeared so delightfully stupid,
When she spoke, through the squeak of her phthisic,
Of the statue of Psyche and Cupid
As "the statute of Cuppid and Physic"!
C.





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