Pray what was she doing? you ask, all amazed, Perhaps you imagine the girl was quite crazed, Or trying a cure--and that’s madness enough-- With “similia similibus” ideas and such stuff.
Oh, no! my dear Reader; she’s simply intent On proving in practice the worth of a bent, Which entered her mind a few moments ago, And set all her brain and her heart in a glow.
In short, all creations of genius, you know, Originate, so they say, always just so; Quite all of a sudden, undreamt of, they’re born In the brain which seeks after to give them a form.
The form which our heroine sought now to give To her noble creation was, sure as I live, A crook in the back and a crook in the arm, And with these same crooks she means yet to charm
Her circle of former admirers and friends, And, after a ripe preparation, intends To make her “_début_” in a style very new, Unknown to the crowd or e’en the rare _few_.
Oh, view her, as now she continues to pass Up and down, while she studies herself in the glass! With parasol raised very high in the air, And spine really taking a curve, I declare,
Exceeding by far the long crook that disease Had wrought there in hours void of rest and of ease, And yet, I assure you, her face glows with smiles, While practicing poses the hours she beguiles.
But while I still watched her, a cloud thin as air, Passed over the features that now seemed so fair; With eyes on the mirror, I heard her exclaim, “Oh! dear me! oh! dear me! I’ve lost it again.”
She takes a new bend--then cries, “That’s not it!” Here, dear reader mine, she was seized with a fit Of abdominal colic, which only did serve To add, you perceive, to her back a new curve.
The full extra curve produced by the pain, Brought strangely the smiles to her features again; She cried, “Oh! kind Providence surely did send This spasm to give me the ‘true Grecian bend!’
“The ‘true Grecian bend!’ here, here is a name Which soon will acquire a most glorious fame! It hides my poor hump altogether, you see, And a leader of fashion again I will be!”
Since the colic referred to, by Providence sent, Two weeks had gone by, and our damsel had bent Whatever of strength she possessed to attain The “true Grecian bend,” and it was not in vain.