And duty, in its soft but strict embrace.
Plain, precious, pure, as best becomes the wife;
Yet firm to bear the frequent rubs of life.
Connubial life disdains a fragile toy,
Which rust can tarnish and a touch destroy;
Nor much admires what courts the general gaze,
The dazzling diamond’s meretricious blaze,
That hides, with glare, the anguish of a heart,
By nature hard, but polished bright by art.
More to thy taste the ornament that shows