Social Commentaries

Vanity Fair

by Christina Rossetti 1830–1894

From New Poems (1896)

Social Commentaries

Some ladies dress in muslin full and white,
Some gentlemen in cloth succinct and black;
Some patronize a dog-cart, some a hack.
Some think a painted clarence only right.
Youth is not always such a pleasing sight,
Witness a man with tassels on his back;
Or woman in a great-coat like a sack
Towering above her sex with horrid height.
If all the world were water fit to drown,
There are some whom you would not teach to swim,
Rather enjoying if you saw them sink;
Certain old ladies dressed in girlish pink,
With roses and geraniums on their gown: --
Go to the Bason, poke them o'er the rim.

MLA

Rossetti, Christina. “Vanity Fair.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_c/440/.

Chicago

Rossetti, Christina. “Vanity Fair.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_c/440/.

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