The Poetry Corner

The Looking-Glass. : On Mrs. Pulteney

By Alexander Pope

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 grac'd her virgin life, But charming G-y's lost in Py's wife. Not greater arrogance in him we find, And this conjunction swells at least her mind: O 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!