Still to be neat, still to be dressed

In “Still to be neat,” Jonson repetitively lists tasks to emphasize the exorbitant nature of the woman’s routine in the poetic voice’s mind. The poem opens with a speaker detailing some of the tasks that the subject of the poem, a woman, needs to accomplish to be ready to be seen in public. First, she must get dressed; next, she must apply cosmetics: She must still “be powdered” and “perfumed” (Line 3). By individually listing each task, the speaker emphasizes the extended routine in which the woman is indulging; this listing also makes the process of readying oneself appear tedious or dull to an outside—and male—observer. When the speaker compares the lady’s look to what she would wear as if she “were going to a feast” (Line 2), he suggests that her dress is overly elaborate and inappropriate for what she is actually about to do; he is critical of her for this overindulgence in her appearance.

The poetic voice of the speaker is a defining feature of the poem. By writing as if he were speaking to another person, Jonson uses the second person pronoun “you” to speak to his audience. As a result, the poem initially feels like a direct address to the listeners, which originally was a theatrical audience. In the fourth line, the speaker specifically and directly addresses his subject, the “Lady” (Line 4). This title contrasts with the impression of the woman the speaker offered until this point. In the preceding lines, he has been critical of her appearance and even implied a low-class or immorality to the woman; the term “Lady” implies that she may be upper class and socially respectable. The use of the poetic voice allows Jonson to explicitly express a moral concern of men during the English Renaissance. To the speaker, the literal deceit in which the woman engages with her appearance reflects a moral deceit regarding her sexual behavior.

The repetition of the word “still” in Lines 1 and 3 emphasizes the ongoing nature of the problem. The jarring effect of the introduction of the word “not” in Lines 5 and 6 indicates that a shift will be coming, as the continuation of what still needs to be done is interrupted for the speaker to suggest what should be done, instead. Further, the stanza break structurally separates the speaker’s problem from his proposed solution. Yet the speaker maintains a relatively light tone throughout. Part of this effect comes from the lyrical form’s meter and rhyme scheme, but this also results from the speaker’s phrasing his observations as requests and suggestions rather than demands.

The speaker begins the next stanza by directly telling his subject what he prefers. Instead of the made-up look she is constructing, he asks her to simply “[g]ive me a look, give me a face” (Line 7). The simplicity, in the speaker’s opinion, will give the woman grace. The speaker sees this “sweet neglect” (Line 10) of her appearance as a sign of innocence and fidelity as compared to the “adulteries” (Line 11) of the cosmetics and clothing she is currently wearing. The speaker ends the poem by emphasizing that the lady’s current cosmetic-heavy look may be visually appealing and “strike [his] eyes” (Line 12) in a lusty way, but it does not make him fall in love with her. By ending with an explicitly stated moral, the reader is left with a lesson to consider.