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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ARTIFICIAL BEAUTY, by LUCIAN Poet's Biography
First Line: You give your cheeks a rosy stain
Last Line: Old hecuba young helen.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lucianus
Subject(s): Cosmetics; Vanity
First Line: You give your cheeks a rosy stain
Last Line: Old hecuba young helen.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lucianus
Subject(s): Cosmetics; Vanity
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.
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