'Archival dandies'* in a cluster
Eye Tanya with a priggish frown,
And with their usual sort of bluster,
Among themselves they put her down.
One melancholy joker found her
His 'true ideal' and hovered round her
Then, leaning by the door, prepared
An elegy, to show he cared.
Once Vyzemsky* sat down beside her
(On meeting her at some dull aunt's)
And managed to dispel her trance;
And some old manwhen he espied her
Put straight his wig and asked around
About this unknown belle he'd found.
50
But where Melpomene still stages
Her stormy scenes and wails aloud
And in her gaudy mantle rages
Before the dull and frigid crowd;
Where sweet Thalia calmly dozes,
Indifferent to admirers' roses;
Where just Terpsichore enchants
The youthful lover of the dance
(As was the casefor nothing passes
In our day too, let's not forget),
No jealous lady trained lorgnette,
No modish connoisseur his glasses,
To spy on Tanya down below
From boxes rising row on row.
51
They take her to the Grand Assembly:*
And there the crush, the glare, the heat,
The music's roar, the ballroom trembling,
The whirling flash of pairs of feet,
The beauties in their filmy dresses,
The swarming gallery throng that presses,
The host of girls on marriage hunts
Assault the senses all at once.
Here practised dandies bow and slither
To show their gall. . . and waistcoats too,
With negligent lorgnettes in view.
Hussars on leave come racing hither
To strut their stuff and thunder by,
To dazzle, conquer . . . and to fly.
52
The night has countless stars to light her,
And Moscow countless beauties too;
And yet the regal moon shines brighter
Than all her friends in heaven's blue;
And she, whose beauty I admire
