The Rape of the Lock. A mock-heroic poem. Canto I • Paragraph 238
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And now this pale swan in her wat’ry nest Begins the sad dirge of her certain ending: “Few words,” quoth she, “shall fit the trespass best, Where no excuse can give the fault amending. In me more woes than words are now depending; And my laments would be drawn out too long, To tell them all with one poor tired tongue.