I. <br /> <br />Dear, had the world in its caprice <br /> Deigned to proclaim ``I know you both, <br /> ``Have recognized your plighted troth, <br />Am sponsor for you: live in peace!''--- <br />How many precious months and years <br /> Of youth had passed, that speed so fast, <br /> Before we found it out at last, <br />The world, and what it fears? <br /> <br /> II. <br /> <br />How much of priceless life were spent <br /> With men that every virtue decks, <br /> And women models of their sex, <br />Society's true ornament,--- <br />Ere we dared wander, nights like this, <br /> Thro' wind and rain, and watch the Seine, <br /> And feel the Boulevart break again <br />To warmth and light and bliss? <br /> <br /> III. <br /> <br />I know! the world proscribes not love; <br /> Allows my finger to caress <br /> Your lips' contour and downiness, <br />Provided it supply a glove. <br />The world's good word!---the Institute! <br /> Guizot receives Montalembert! <br /> Eh? Down the court three lampions flare: <br />Put forward your best foot!<br /><br />Robert Browning<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/respectability/
