The Naughty Man; or, Sir Thomas Brown / Love, Courtship and Marriage in High Life. A Poetical Satire

Chapter 3: I.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

The poem satirically follows an elderly millionaire who courts and secretly marries a lively young widow, portraying their quiet domestic life and the scandalized reactions of family, the press, and society. Arranged in numbered lyrical sections, it mixes comic moralizing, social observation, and pointed lampoons of hypocrisy, vanity, and fashionable affectation. The narrator criticizes gossip and public pretensions while reflecting on human delusion, love, and the performative nature of rank and reputation, using rhythmic verse and anecdote to expose foibles in courtship, marriage, and high social life.

The Naughty Man;

OR,

SIR THOMAS BROWN.

I.

LESSONS we learn from what we daily see

Of good or evil, if philosophy,

Based on those great First Truths, will hold the mind

Within its limits—happiness to find.

Those great First Truths will teach the human soul

That the equator lies not at the pole,

That man before his own nose cannot walk,

That man without his palate cannot talk;

That gravitation tends not to the sky,

But to Earth’s center, should he try to fly.