When in my youth, I was my mother's pride;
We always went together, side by side;
No harm I wrought, by either word or deed;
For to be plain, I could not write or read;
But soon as man seiz'd on my tender frame,
Depriv'd of life, his pupil I became,
And tho' of late so innocent and mild,
With blackest deeds my virtues now defil'd;
My tongue he slits, and I begin to prate
Of friends and foes, of politics and state.