The Rape of the Lock. A mock-heroic poem. Canto I • Paragraph 40
Stage 1 of 6

Read it through once

“O, what excuse can my invention make When thou shalt charge me with so black a deed? Will not my tongue be mute, my frail joints shake, Mine eyes forgo their light, my false heart bleed? The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed; And extreme fear can neither fight nor fly, But coward-like with trembling terror die.