To a Vain Lady
by George Gordon, Lord Byron

(composed: 15 January 1807)


    1
  1.   Ah! heedless girl! why thus disclose
  2.     What ne’er was meant for other ears:
  3.   Why thus destroy thine own repose
  4.     And dig the source of future tears?

    2
  5.   Oh, thou wilt weep, imprudent maid,
  6.     While lurking envious foes will smile,
  7.   For all the follies thou hast said
  8.     Of those who spoke but to beguile.

    3
  9.   Vain girl! thy ling’ring woes are nigh,
  10.     If thou believ’st what striplings say:
  11.   Oh, from the deep temptation fly,
  12.     Nor fall the specious spoiler’s prey.

    4
  13.   Dost thou repeat, in childish boast,
  14.     The words man utters to deceive?
  15.   Thy peace, thy hope, thy all is lost,
  16.     If thou canst venture to believe.

    5
  17.   While now amongst thy female peers
  18.     Thou tell’st again the soothing tale,
  19.   Canst thou not mark the rising sneers
  20.     Duplicity in vain would veil?

    6
  21.   These tales in secret silence hush,
  22.     Nor make thyself the public gaze:
  23.   What modest maid without a blush
  24.     Recounts a flattering coxcomb’s praise?

    7
  25.   Will not the laughing boy despise
  26.     Her who relates each fond conceit—
  27.   Who, thinking Heaven is in her eyes,
  28.     Yet cannot see the slight deceit?

    8
  29.   For she who takes a soft delight
  30.     These amorous nothings in revealing,
  31.   Must credit all we say or write,
  32.     While vanity prevents concealing.

    9
  33.   Cease, if you prize your beauty’s reign!
  34.     No jealousy bids me reprove:
  35.   One, who is thus from nature vain,
  36.     I pity, but I cannot love.

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