Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GRAYBEARDS, by WALT MASON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GRAYBEARDS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We relics of a bygone time insist that old
Last Line: "this year, the cops would make a raid!"
Subject(s): Fashion


WE relics of a bygone time insist that old things were sublime, that modern
things are punk; but our old domes are full of bats, and we are talking through

our hats, and all we say is bunk. The lovely dames come down the street, togged

out in raiment slick and neat, and we look on and sigh; "The modern fashions,"
we declaim, "are nothing but a burning shame—they shock the purist's eye.
They make the tired spectator ache; and how the womenfolk can make themselves a

holy show, is something that we can't explain; oh, for the fashions safe and
sane, of forty years ago!" We make such statements free and bold, but if you
take an album old, and view the women there, with gowns that look like circus
tents, and shawls that look like twenty cents, and nets upon their hair, you'll

say, "Those girls were surely shrieks! The world was overrun with freaks when
those tintypes were made; if any woman should appear in such a spread of rags
this year, the cops would make a raid!"





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