The Widow in the Bye Street

by John Masefield

'More silly idiots they to be beguiled.'

'Well, I don't know.' 'Well, I do. See her eyes?

Mystery, eh? A woman's mystery's lies.'

'Perhaps.' 'No p'raps about it, that's the truth.

I know these women; they're a rotten lot.'

'You didn't use to think so in your youth.'

'No; but I'm wiser now, and not so hot.

Married or buried, I say, wives or shot,

These unmanned, unattached Maries and Susans

Make life no better than a proper nuisance.'