Classic Poem

The Reforming Fop

 To sin's a vice in nature, and we find
All men to error and mistakes inclined,
And reprehension's not at all uncivil,
But to have rakes reprove us, that's the devil.
 Seaton, if such a thing this age can show,
Sets up for an instructing sober beau,
An air of gravity upon his brow,
And would be pious too, if he knew how;
His language decent, very seldom swears,
And never fails the playhouse, nor his prayers;
Vice seems to have been banished from his doors,
And very, very seldom whores.
 His brother fops he drags to church to pray,
And checks the ladies if they talk too gay;
But Seaton most unhappily has fixed
On two extremes which never can be mixed,
For it will all the power of art outdo
To join the new reformer and the beau.