Don Juan 06-031 ~ 035
 

 
Don Juan 06-031
Canto the Sixth
 
     XXXI
 
Whether she was a "mother," I know not,
     Or whether they were "maids" who call'd her mother;
But this is her seraglio title, got
     I know not how, but good as any other;
So Cantemir can tell you, or De Tott:
     Her office was to keep aloof or smother
All bad propensities in fifteen hundred
Young women, and correct them when they blunder'd.
 
 
Don Juan 06-032
Canto the Sixth
 
     XXXII
 
A goodly sinecure, no doubt! but made
     More easy by the absence of all men --
Except his majesty, who, with her aid,
     And guards, and bolts, and walls, and now and then
A slight example, just to cast a shade
     Along the rest, contrived to keep this den
Of beauties cool as an Italian convent,
Where all the passions have, alas! but one vent.
 
 
Don Juan 06-033
Canto the Sixth
 
     XXXIII
 
And what is that? Devotion, doubtless -- how
     Could you ask such a question? -- but we will
Continue. As I said, this goodly row
     Of ladies of all countries at the will
Of one good man, with stately march and slow,
     Like water-lilies floating down a rill --
Or rather lake, for rills do not run slowly, --
Paced on most maiden-like and melancholy.
 
 
Don Juan 06-034
Canto the Sixth
 
     XXXIV
 
But when they reach'd their own apartments, there,
     Like birds, or boys, or bedlamites broke loose,
Waves at spring-tide, or women anywhere
     When freed from bonds (which are of no great use
After all), or like Irish at a fair,
     Their guards being gone, and as it were a truce
Establish'd between them and bondage, they
Began to sing, dance, chatter, smile, and play.
 
 
Don Juan 06-035
Canto the Sixth
 
     XXXV
 
Their talk, of course, ran most on the new comer;
     Her shape, her hair, her air, her everything:
Some thought her dress did not so much become her,
     Or wonder'd at her ears without a ring;
Some said her years were getting nigh their summer,
     Others contended they were but in spring;
Some thought her rather masculine in height,
While others wish'd that she had been so quite.
 
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
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