The Novel (late 1800's)

had many outbursts of emotion
from fair-skinned lady noblesse
being driven to distraction by the obliqueness of the ornate
romantic advance thank heaven for the clear moral compass
which guides us through these intrigues
safely to a simple union

I discussed the plot with an American nurse
who said she could not understand why the heroine
felt such despair and I agreed and wondered
why it was that these great authors woke in such an idle time
and now have forever enmeshed our greatest dreams in the filigree of the sentimental elite.