To Sir Robert Walpole

Great Sir, as on each levee day
I still attend you — still you say—
I'm busy now, to-morrow come;
To-morrow, sir, you're not at home;
So says your porter, and dare I
Give such a man as him the lie?
In imitation, sir, of you,
I keep a mighty levee too:
Where my attendants, to their sorrow,
Are bid to come again to-morrow.
To-morrow they return, no doubt,
But then, like you, sir, I'm gone out.
So says my maid; but they less civil
Give maid and master to the devil;
And then with menaces depart.
Which could you hear would pierce your heart.
Good sir, do make my levee fly me.
Or lend your porter to deny me.