Of penance, such tales are a bundle of fictions,
And that all that we hear of constraint and coercion
Is, to speak in mild language, mere groundless assertion.
That an Abbess would not—any more than a Mayoress—
Ever dream of inveigling an opulent heiress,
That each convent's the home of devotion and purity,
And that nothing is thought about, there, but futurity.
That no Nuns exist their profession regretting,
Who kept in confinement are pining and fretting;
And to fancy there might be one such, though a rarity,