A Song: Lying is an occupation

By Laetitia Pilkington
Lying is an occupation,
     Used by all who mean to rise;
Politicians owe their station,
     But to well concerted lies.

These to lovers give assistance,
     To ensnare the fair-one's heart;
And the virgin's best resistance
     Yields to this commanding art.

Study this superior science,
     Would you rise in Church or State;
Bid to Truth a bold defiance,
     'Tis the practice of the great.

Source: English Women's Poetry, Elizabethan to Victorian (edited by R.E. Pritchard) (Fyfield Books, 1990)