Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828) [by Mitch Sisskind]

Lamb

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
O be with me! How dear I am,
Flinging myself from chair to chair.
Hello, I am Lady Caroline Lamb.


Would you like a witty epigram
Or a discreet snip of my pubic hair?
O be with me! How dear I am!

For Byron I made pleasing shams
Dressed as squires or Scots lairds;
Hello, I am Lady Caroline Lamb.

But what now avails such flimflam
As we played, our unchaste dares?
O be with me! How dear I am!

For my novels I was also slammed
By vain unlettered aristo types. How unfair!
Hello, I am Lady Caroline Lamb.

Reader, let’s meet among the damned
And do as we please, they won’t care.
O be with me! How dear I am!

I’ll write only paeans and dithyrambs
In hell, I’ll be such a good girl there!
O be with me! How dear I am!
Hello, I am Lady Caroline Lamb!

                                ***
Some notes:
Stanza 2: Lamb sent this snip to Byron
on August 9, 1812.

Stanza 3: Lamb liked to cross-dress
to amuse Byron or to gain access to
him when he was trying to hide from her.

Lamb was a vastly more interesting and
talented person than I’ve been able to
convey in this poem (sniff, sob.) There’s
an excellent biography by Paul Douglass.

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Author: Mitch Sisskind