Prince Rasselas Part 7

A Dispute on Marriage,

Rasselas and Nekayah

As Nekayah finishes her account on the poor

She explains that the family's are broken up

Some go to the father,

Some go to the mother,

And so they break up the family.

Some say that a Kingdom is like a family,

But truly (Said Nakayah) a family is like a kingdom

With feuds, and fights, 

With kings and knights

Fighting over territory, and the like.

When she had finished Rasselas declared

Imlac sketched a sketch of the miseries of the world

But you Nekayah have filled in the sketch with detail and color.

But Nekayah, he said,

I do believe that marriage would be the way of they happy.

Nekayah believes him not and tells him that

The young and old always disagree

When you're old you think different

Than when you are young,

But Rasselas disputed,

But the joys of children,

It's always been told, 

they make you happy when you are old

However Nekayah, countered with this

Yet if you marry young,

Your children will be poor,

You will guide them ill, because you lack wisdom

Well then, said Rasselas,

What if you marry when you're wise

When you have wisdom, when you're older

Ah, said the princess,

But if you marry old

You may not have children at all!

And if you do, you'll be so old,

They will be ruled by a governess,

And not by you at all

And if perchance that doesn't happen

And you teach them yourself,

You will never see them in their wisdom

Being, as it is said, in the grave.

And so they disputed till Imlac came in 

And changed the conversation.

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