To a good housekeeper

This Glass of Steel unpartially doth show
Abuses all to such as in it look… - SIR WALTER RALEGH

If smelting is an unattractive trade
It’s still of use for tolerance and test
Silver and slag heaped and indifferent laid
Are stratified and sold out or caressed.

Since metallurgy has come on apace
Your table should be dressed in minute care
The kitchen knives kept each their proper space
The armigerous, the cutting and the spare.

And lest you, lady, prick too sharp an edge,
Then tarnish cherished silver with chaste blood
We find in common currency a sledge
Its softer mettle made of metal mud

But not to be employed on holidays
Nor trusted with the whiter company
Of cloth and kindness – above all, always
To be washed up before confectionery.

When steel is doctored it may be misnamed
Stains can be unapparent when no less
Corrosive, and embedded, unashamed,
Blades silted something lowlier than mess.

Well whetted, then, you see off dulled disguise,
Silver knives, lady, brightening your eyes.