A Slice of Wedding Cake

Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls
     Married impossible men?
Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,
     And missionary endeavor, nine times out of ten.

Repeat 'impossible men': not merely rustic,
     Foul-tempered or depraved
(Dramatic foils chosen to show the world
     How well women behave, and always have behaved).

Impossible men: idle, illiterate,
     Self-pitying, dirty, sly,
For whose appearance even in City parks
     Excuses must be made to casual passers-by.

Has God's supply of tolerable husbands
     Fallen, in fact, so low?
Or do I always over-value woman
     At the expense of man?
                                                  Do I?
                                                              It might be so.

 

Robert Graves, Collected Poems (Faber and Faber, 1975)