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...THE CENTER OF GRAVITY by DAVID IGNATOW MARY AND GABRIEL by RUPERT BROOKE THIRD BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 25 by THOMAS CAMPION THE DORCHESTER GIANT by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES DAMON THE MOWER by ANDREW MARVELL THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 23. LOVE'S BAUBLES by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI IN REFERENCE TO HER CHILDREN, 23 JUNE, 1659 by ANNE BRADSTREET |