Richard Porson’s Charades
My first is expressive of no disrespect,
Yet I never shall call you it while you are by;
If my second you still are resolved to reject,
As dead as my third I shall speedily lie.
If nature and fortune had placed me with you
On my first, we my second might hope to obtain;
I might marry you, were I my third, it is true,
But the marriage would only embitter my pain.
My first is the lot that is destined by fate