Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PORTRAIT by ANONYMOUS

First Line: "PEARLS AND PATCHES, POWDER AND PAINT"
Subject(s): PEARLS;
PEARLS and patches, powder and paint,
This was her grandmother years ago.
Gown and coiffure so strange and quaint,
Features just lacking the prim of the saint,
From the mischievous dimple that lurks below;
High-heeled slippers and satin bow,
Red lips mocking the heart's constraint,
Free from passion, devoid of taint --
This was her grandmother years ago.

Straight and slender, gallant and tall,
Ah, how he loved her, years ago!
Just so she looked at that last dim ball,
When, in a niche of the dusk old hall,
They whispered together soft and low.
She whispered "yes," but fate answered "no:"
Some one listened and told it all,
And the horses might wait by the garden wall,
But none came to answer him, years ago.

So, standing, fresh as the rose on her breast.
Smiling down on me here below,
Never a care on her brow impressed,
Never the dream of a thought confessed
Of all the weariness and the woe,
Hearts would break were time not so slow.
Swept are life's chambers; comes the new guest.
Old love, or new love -- which was the best?
For this was her grandmother years ago.



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