The Rape of the Lock. A mock-heroic poem. Canto I • Paragraph 135
Stage 1 of 6

Read it through once

“Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame, Thy private feasting to a public fast, Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name, Thy sugared tongue to bitter wormwood taste. Thy violent vanities can never last. How comes it then, vile Opportunity, Being so bad, such numbers seek for thee?