Classic Poem

P HYLLIDA'S young—but skilled in self-control;
Phyllida's fair—of that Phyllida's sure;
Phyllida's pure—notoriously pure;
Phyllida's wise—when snaring men's her goal;
Phyllida's innocent—when that's her rôle;
With deft and silken craft, occult, obscure,
She makes her proven purity a lure;
Phyllida's virtuous, in all but soul!

Phyllida's always outraged when she's played
The very hell Phyllida planned to play.
I spoke the latest fool Phyllida's made:
“Were this,” he mused, “a franker, elder day,
Long since some amorous dagger had caressed
The lovely hollow of Phyllida's breast!”