Explanations:

But since, alas! frail beauty must decay,

X Curled or uncurled since locks will turn to grey;

Since painted, or not painted, all shall fade,

And she who scorns a man, must die a maid.

Answer: These lines are derived from the mock-heroic, “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope. They are part of Clarisse’s speech. They have been selected from the Fifth and last canto of the famous poem which is a remarkable achievement of the eighteenth century. Here the poet is moralizing as well as sermonizing through the speech of his mouthpiece, Clarissa.

When Belinda stops speaking, Clarissa starts delivering her moralistic speech. Clarissa says regretfully that beauty is fleeting and must come to an end. Beauty is short-lived and transient and the charms of a woman must decline one day. A woman’s bright locks of hair whether curled or uncurled shall turn grey with the approach of old age. Whether she uses cosmetics or not, her beauty ought to fade away soon. Her freshness and charm inevitably depart. Clarissa also adds that a girl who scornfully rejects her lovers in her youth would have to remain unmarried for life. Because her beauty would soon fade away and then nobody would love to marry her. In this way, the girl will necessarily die single in these lines Clarisse concludes her plea for good humor on the part of women. Her attitude reminds one that Pope intends his poem to dispel the unpleasant feelings, which had arisen in Mrs. Arabella Fermor’s family through Lord Peter’s theft of the lock of hair. Through Clarisse, the poet comments on the moral depravity of his age.