IF, Marchioness, you can descry My face becoming old and sere, Remember, when as old as I, No whit more comely you'll appear. Time, which delights each fairest thing To fade and tarnish, and disgrace, Shall ruin to your roses bring, As furrows on my forehead trace. To one same course do fate or star Rule night and day our destiny. I late was seen as now you are; What I am now you soon shall be. Yet I, at least, possess some charms-- Some excellencies so sublime-- That I can look without alarms Upon the ravages of time. You, too, have charms which all adore; Still, lady, mine--which now you scorn-- May yet exist long ages o'er, When yours long since are lost and worn. Mine from oblivion can reprieve Bright eyes, and still their fame renew, And make a thousand years believe Whate'er I choose to say of you. Among that distant race of men With whom my credit yet shall live, The glory of your charms shall then Be just as much as I shall give. Remember, then, fair Marchioness, Though shrinking from a grizzled beard, It should be courted, ne'ertheless, In one who must, like me, be feared. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A LITTLE INVISIBLE BEING WHO IS EXPECTED SOON TO BECOME VISIBLE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE FLOOD OF YEARS by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 16 by OMAR KHAYYAM THERE WAS A BOY (VERSION 1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH A PORTRAIT by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD WRITTEN, AT THE REQUEST OF A GENTLEMAN, UNDER A .. PICTURE by RICHARD BARNFIELD |