This day (the year I dare not tell) <br />Apollo play'd the midwife's part; <br />Into the world Corinna fell, <br />And he endued her with his art. <br /> <br />But Cupid with a Satyr comes; <br />Both softly to the cradle creep; <br />Both stroke her hands, and rub her gums, <br />While the poor child lay fast asleep. <br /> <br />Then Cupid thus: 'This little maid <br />Of love shall always speak and write;' <br />'And I pronounce,' the Satyr said, <br />'The world shall feel her scratch and bite.' <br /> <br />Her talent she display'd betimes; <br />For in a few revolving moons, <br />She seem'd to laugh and squall in rhymes, <br />And all her gestures were lampoons. <br /> <br />At six years old, the subtle jade <br />Stole to the pantry-door, and found <br />The butler with my lady's maid: <br />And you may swear the tale went round. <br /> <br />She made a song, how little miss <br />Was kiss'd and slobber'd by a lad: <br />And how, when master went to p—, <br />Miss came, and peep'd at all he had. <br /> <br />At twelve, a wit and a coquette; <br />Marries for love, half whore, half wife; <br />Cuckolds, elopes, and runs in debt; <br />Turns authoress, and is Curll's for life. <br /> <br />Her common-place book all gallant is, <br />Of scandal now a cornucopia; <br />She pours it out in Atalantis <br />Or memoirs of the New Utopia.<br /><br />Jonathan Swift<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/corinna/
