And History was quite as bad a balk1;
Her French it was too small for Petty France,
And Priscian suffered in her English talk:
Her drawing might be done with cheese or chalk;
As for the globes—the use of the terrestrial
She knew when she went out to take a walk,
[Pg 307]
Or take a ride; but, touching2 the celestial3,
Her knowledge hardly soared above the bestial4.
Nothing she learned of Juno, Pallas, Mars;
Georgium, for what she knew, might stand for Burgo,
Sidus, for Master: then, for northern stars,
The Bear she fancied did in sable5 fur go,
The Bull was Farmer Giles’s bull, and, ergo,
The Ram6 the same that butted7 at her brother;
As for the Twins, she only guessed that Virgo,
From coming after them, must be their mother;
The Scales weighed soap, tea, figs8, like any other.
As ignorant as donkeys in Gallicia,
She thought that Saturn9, with his Belt, was but
A private, may be, in the Kent Militia10;
That Charles’s Wain would stick in a deep rut,
That Venus was a real West-End slut—
Oh, Gods and Goddesses of Greek Theogony!
That Berenice’s Hair would curl and cut,
That Cassiopëia’s Chair was good Mahogany,
Nicely French-polished,—such was her cosmogony!
Judge, then, how puzzled by the scientifics
Lorenzo’s letter came now to dispense11;
A lizard12, crawling over hieroglyphics13,
Knows quite as much of their Egyptian sense;
A sort of London fog, opaque14 and dense15,
Hung over verbs, nouns, genitives, and datives.
In vain she pored and pored, with eyes intense;
As well is known to oyster-operatives,
Mere16 looking at the shells won’t open natives.
Yet mixed with the hard words, so called, she found
Some easy ones that gave her heart the staggers:
[Pg 308]
Words giving tongue against her, like a hound
At picking out a fault—words speaking daggers17.
The very letters seemed, in hostile swaggers,
To lash18 their tails, but not as horses do,
Nor like the tails of spaniels, gentle waggers,
But like a lion’s, ere he tears in two
A black, to see if he is black all through.
With open mouth, and eyeballs at full stretch,
She gazed upon the paper sad and sorry,
No sound—no stir—quite petrified19, poor wretch20!
As when Apollo, in old allegory,
Down-stooping like a falcon21, made his quarry22
Of Niobe, just turned to Purbeck stone;
In fact, since Cupid grew into a worry,
Judge if a suing lover, let alone
A lawyer, ever wrote in such a tone.
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1
balk
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n.大方木料;v.妨碍;不愿前进或从事某事 | |
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2
touching
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adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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3
celestial
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adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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4
bestial
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adj.残忍的;野蛮的 | |
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5
sable
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n.黑貂;adj.黑色的 | |
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6
ram
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(random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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7
butted
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对接的 | |
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8
figs
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figures 数字,图形,外形 | |
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9
Saturn
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n.农神,土星 | |
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10
militia
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n.民兵,民兵组织 | |
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11
dispense
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vt.分配,分发;配(药),发(药);实施 | |
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12
lizard
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n.蜥蜴,壁虎 | |
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13
hieroglyphics
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n.pl.象形文字 | |
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14
opaque
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adj.不透光的;不反光的,不传导的;晦涩的 | |
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15
dense
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a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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16
mere
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adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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17
daggers
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匕首,短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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18
lash
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v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
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19
petrified
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adj.惊呆的;目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆,使惊呆;变僵硬;使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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20
wretch
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n.可怜的人,不幸的人;卑鄙的人 | |
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21
falcon
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n.隼,猎鹰 | |
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22
quarry
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n.采石场;v.采石;费力地找 | |
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