Swift's “Skinnibonia”: A New Poem from Lady ... - Lafayette College

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James Woolley
Where that busy working pate
Might breed factions in the state,
Or instruct thee how to write
Libels on the Dean and Knight.
When the smock-less Nymphs expose
Pairs of legs from knees to toes,
How you scold to see them naked,
Grim’d with dirt by Phebus baked!
In what fury when you spy’d
Her that show’d her brown back-side?
How your eyes were fixt upon her
Zealous for your sexes honor!
Men might think that every Dame
Were she stript would show the same.
Leanest, lightest Skinnibony,
Zephyr’s Mistress, Echo’s Crony;
Zephyr, when you chanc’d to stoop
Strove to get beneath your hoop,
And to waft you Lord knows where,
To his Palace high in air:
But the Dean with counter-charm
Interpos’d his valiant arm,
Lent a Pin to make all tight;
Zephyr fled with grief and spight.
Echo, from the flanker-wall
Flew to ayd you at your squawl;
Who that saw, must be a witch
To distinguish which was which;
Had it not been after dinner
Skinny would be thought the thinner:
Echo wondred why your bones
Were not yet transform’d to stones:
Said, that Laces and Brocadoes
Were but lost in cloathing shadows;
Strip but off that useless cloathing
Soon your Skin would dry to nothing,
Nor, of woman ought remain
But repeating words in vain.