You give your cheeks a rosy stain, With washes dye your hair, But paint and washes both are vain To give a youthful air. Those wrinkles mock your daily toil; No labor will efface them; You wear a mask of smoothest oil, Yet still with ease we trace them. An art so fruitless then forsake, Which though you much excel in, You never can contrive to make Old Hecuba young Helen. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: 48 by GEORGE SANTAYANA GASCOIGNE'S GOOD MORROW by GEORGE GASCOIGNE POEM FOR PICTURE: TO A DRAWING OF A HORSE BY GEORGIO DI CHIRICO by FRANK ANKENBRAND JR. TO ONE WHO DIED LAST YEAR by ANNA EMILIA BAGSTAD |