The Rape of the Lock. A mock-heroic poem. Canto I • Paragraph 250
Stage 1 of 6

Read it through once

At this request, with noble disposition Each present lord began to promise aid, As bound in knighthood to her imposition, Longing to hear the hateful foe bewrayed. But she, that yet her sad task hath not said, The protestation stops. “O, speak,” quoth she, “How may this forced stain be wiped from me?