4. The Tree in Pamela’s Garden

PAMELA was too gentle to deceive

Her roses. “Let the men stay where they are,”

She said, “and if Apollo’s avatar

Be one of them, I shall not have to grieve.”

And so she made all Tilbury Town believe

She sighed a little more for the North Star

Than over men, and only in so far

As she was in a garden was like Eve.

Her neighbors—doing all that neighbors can

To make romance of reticence meanwhile—

Seeing that she had never loved a man,

Wished Pamela had a cat, or a small bird,

And only would have wondered at her smile

Could they have seen that she had overheard.