Embower’d in trees, and hardly known to Fame,
There dwells, in lowly shed and mean attire,
A matron old, whom we Schoolmistress name,
Who boasts unruly brats with birch to tame;
They grieven sore, in piteous durance pent,
Aw’d by the power of this relentless dame,
And ofttimes, on vagaries idly bent,
For unkempt hair, or task unconn’d, are sorely shent.
And all in sight doth rise a birchen tree,
Which Learning near her little dome did stowe,