BARMAID

by: William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)

HOUGH, if you ask her name, she says Elise,

Being plain Elizabeth, e'en let it pass,

And own that, if her aspirates take their ease,

She ever makes a point, in washing glass,

Handling the engine, turning taps for tots,

And countering change, and scorning what men say,

Of posing as a dove among the pots,

Nor often gives her dignity away.

Her head's a work of art, and, if her eyes

Be tired and ignorant, she has a waist;

Cheaply the Mode she shadows; and she tries

From penny novels to amend her taste;

And, having mopped the zinc for certain years,

And faced the gas, she fades and disappears.

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