(Please click the link after you read the poem, as it might take a while to load. My caption: "Her vivid head, relieved against the dull tints of the crowd, made her more conspicuous than in a ball-room, and under her dark hat and veil she retained the girlish smoothness, the purity of tint, that she was beginning to lose after eleven years of late hours and indefatigable dancing.") I wrote this poem while I was quite bored and halfway through The House of Mirth; it is in the (badly imitated) style of Dr. Seuss.

This is Miss Lily.
Miss Lily is silly.
She spends willy-nilly,
And can't pay the bill-y.

Lily is poor, so she has to marry,
But it cannot be any Tom, Dick or Harry.
They have to be quite rich, but she wasn't wary,
For, sadly for Lily, her brain is quite airy.

A moment's impulsiveness ruined her chances
For Percy Gryce's millions or other romances.
This did not improve her most wretched finances,
Nor did the card games she played at the dances.

Her mother had taught her to never be dingy
But Lily just could not save or be stingy.
Her shopping trips used to be extravagant and binge-y,
And her conscience never was much more than twinge-y.

Miss Lily is also well known as Miss Bart.
One time she posed as a piece of great art;
Everyone loved her when she played this part,
And Lily (quite frankly), she thought herself smart.

She went to Europe for a relaxing cruise,
Till she got kicked out; her pride got a bruise.
When she got home there was much more bad news:
Her dead aunt had gypped her...more financial blues.

She had to pay all the money and debt,
Which without income, she might never get.
She had to escape, but she could make no bet
As to whether she could ever pay them quite yet.

Finally Lily, who was quite out-of-work,
Was desperately sad, and almost berserk.
She paid the last bill and did some housework,
And got out her chloral, her life's only perk.

It's the end of the road for poor Lily, my friend.
And though it's not gory, she met a sad end.
And the next morning, poor Selden did tend
Her bedside, and uttered the words that transcend.