On the Countess of Burlington Cutting Paper

Pallas grew vapourish once, and odd,

She would not do the least right thing,

Either for goddess, or for god,

Nor work, nor play, nor paint, nor sing.

Jove frown'd, and, "Use," he cried, "those eyes

So skilful, and those hands so taper;

Do something exquisite and wise —"

She bow'd, obey'd him, — and cut paper.

This vexing him who gave her birth,

Thought by all heaven a burning shame;

What does she next, but bids, on earth,

Her Burlington do just the same.

Pallas, you give yourself strange airs;

But sure you'll find it hard to spoil

The sense and taste of one that bears

The name of Saville and of Boyle.

Alas! one bad example shown;

How quickly all the sex pursue!

See, madam, see the arts o'erthrown,

Between John Overton and you!

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope, (born May 21, 1688, London, England—died May 30, 1744, Twickenham, near London), poet and satirist of the English Augustan period, best known for his poems An Essay on Criticism (1711), The Rape of the Lock (1712–14), The Dunciad (1728), and An Essay on Man (1733–34). He is one of the most epigrammatic of all English authors. Pope’s command of diction is no less happily adapted to his theme and to the type of poem, and the range of his imagery is remarkably wide. He has been thought defective in imaginative power, but this opinion cannot be sustained in view of the invention and organizing ability shown notably in The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad. He was the first English poet to enjoy contemporary fame in France and Italy and throughout the European continent and to see translations of his poems into modern as well as ancient languages.

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On the Countess of Burlington Cutting Paper

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