Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 2. FORMER BEAUTIES, by THOMAS HARDY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR: 2. FORMER BEAUTIES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
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.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net