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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 2. FORMER BEAUTIES by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: THESE MARKET-DAMES, MID-AGED, WITH LIPS THIN-DRAWN
Last Line: THEM ALWAYS FAIR.
Subject(s): BEAUTY; FESTIVALS; TRANSIENCE; FAIRS; PAGEANTS; IMPERMANENCE;

THESE market-dames, mid-aged, with lips thin-drawn,
And tissues sere,
Are they the ones we loved in years agone,
And courted here?

Are these the muslined pink young things to whom
We vowed and swore
In nooks on summer Sundays by the Froom,
Or Budmouth shore?

Do they remember those gay tunes we trod
Clasped on the green;
Aye; trod till moonlight set on the beaten sod
A satin sheen?

They must forget, forget! They cannot know
What once they were,
Or memory would transfigure them, and show
Them always fair.



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