Living

Than marriage and music can ought be more like?

by Charles Dibdin 1745–1814

From A Collection of Songs, Selected from the Works of Mr. Dibdin (1790)

Living

Than marriage and music can ought be more like?
Both are bound and cemented by strong chords;
Hymen's chains, tho' they gall, yet with ecstasy strike,
Exactly like discords and concords:
Like hooting of owls and of bats on the wing,
Strife all wedding happiness garbles,
But when hearts born for pleasure in unison sing,
'Tis the mellow-ton'd nightingale warbles.

When the wife or the husband a note sounds too sharp,
In alt both immediately soar;
On family discords they mutually harp,
Nor will either come down a note lower.
They like, &c.

All harmony's powers in wedlock we trace,
Dutch harmony, not Italiano;
She thunders the counter, he grumbles the bass,
And the children squall out the soprano.
They like, &c.

MLA

Dibdin, Charles. “Than marriage and music can ought be more like?” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dibdin/21/.

Chicago

Dibdin, Charles. “Than marriage and music can ought be more like?” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dibdin/21/.

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