Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)

Some Ladies Dress in Muslin Full and White c. 1848

Some ladies dress in muslin full and white,

Some gentlemen in cloth succinct and black;

Some patronise 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 tassels on his back;

Or woman in a great-coat like a sack,

Towering above her sex with horrid height.

If all the world were water fit to drown,

There are some whom you would not teach to swim, 10

Rather enjoying if you saw them sink:

Certain old ladies dressed in girlish pink,

With roses and geraniums on their gown.

Go to the basin, poke them o’er the rim—