(Maidens' song from St. Winefred's Well) THE LEADEN ECHO HOW to keep -- is there any any, is there none such, nowhere known some, bow or brooch or braid or brace, lace, latch or catch or key to keep Back beauty, keep it, beauty, beauty, beauty, ... from vanishing away? O is there no frowning of these wrinkles, ranked wrinkles deep, Down? no waving off of these most mournful messengers, still messengers, sad and stealing messengers of grey? No there 's none, there 's none, O no there 's none, Nor can you long be, what you now are, called fair, Do what you may do, what, do what you may, And wisdom is early to despair: Be beginning; since, no, nothing can be done To keep at bay Age and age's evils, hoar hair, Ruck and wrinkle, drooping, dying, death's worst, winding sheets, tombs and worms and tumbling to decay; So be beginning, be beginning to despair. O there 's none; no no no there 's none: Be beginning to despair, to despair, Despair, despair, despair, despair. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AN ANATOMY OF THE WORLD: THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY by JOHN DONNE THE MOTHER IN THE HOUSE by HERMANN HAGEDORN MAUDE CLARE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI BEAUTIFUL WOMEN by WALT WHITMAN DIRGE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE CLOUDED SOUL by LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA A DIALOGUE (TO BE SUNG TO THE VIOL, BY A BASE, AND A TREBLE) by JOSEPH BEAUMONT A HYMN TO JESUS by BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX THE LOVE SONNETS OF PROTEUS: 41. FAREWELL TO JULIET (3) by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT |