Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN OLD CHAR-WOMAN, by CRANSTON STROUP


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN OLD CHAR-WOMAN, by                    
First Line: An old char-woman', the inscription read
Last Line: Ancestral ages' suffering mars her face.
Subject(s): Household Employees; Old Age; Servants; Domestics; Maids


"An Old Char-Woman", the inscription read
Beneath the worn old figure in the hall,
Just as she paused a moment to let fall
Her brush a while to raise her tired head.
It was no fabled beauty, long since dead,
Born out of ages in Time's faint recall,
Carved from this marble, gracious, fair and tall,
But just a bent old char-woman instead.

A piece of faultless marble, clear and fine,
Reared slowly by the process of the years
Is now transfigured in this holy place.
And so is menial labor made divine:
But still her cheeks are creased by many tears,
Ancestral ages' suffering mars her face.





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