Social Commentaries

The Looking-Glass: On Mrs Pulteney

by Alexander Pope 1688–1744

From Miscellanies

Social Commentaries

With scornful mien, and various toss of air,
Fantastic, vain, and insolently fair,
Grandeur intoxicates her giddy brain,
She looks ambition, and she moves disdain.
Far other carriage graced her virgin life,
But charming Gumley's lost in Pulteney's wife.
Not greater arrogance in him we find,
And this conjunction swells at least her mind:
Oh could the sire, renown'd in glass, produce
One faithful mirror for his daughter's use!
Wherein she might her haughty errors trace,
And by reflection learn to mend her face:
The wonted sweetness to her form restore,
Be what she was, and charm mankind once more!

MLA

Pope, Alexander. “The Looking-Glass: On Mrs Pulteney.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/pope/101/.

Chicago

Pope, Alexander. “The Looking-Glass: On Mrs Pulteney.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/pope/101/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Alexander Pope