Christina Rossetti - Vanity Fair lyrics

Some ladies dress in muslin full and white, Some gentlemen in cloth succinct and black; Some patronize a dog-cart, some a hack. Some think a painted clarence only right. Youth is not always such a pleasing sight, Witness a man with ta**els on his back ; Or woman in a great-coat like a sack Towering above her s** with horrid height. If all the world were water fit to drown, There are some whom you would not teach to swim. Rather enjoying if you saw them sink ; Certain old ladies dressed in girlish pink. With roses and geraniums on their gown : — Go to the Bason, poke them o'er the rim.