Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thyself thy beauty's legacy? Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend, And being frank she lends to those are free. Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse The bounteous largess given thee to give? Profitless usurer, why dost thou use So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live? For having traffic with thyself alone, Thou of thyself thy sweet self dost deceive. Then how, when nature calls thee to be gone, What acceptable audit canst thou leave? Thy unused beauty must be tomb'd with thee, Which, used, lives th' executor to be. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FUTURE LIFE by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE RETIREMENT; TO MR. IZAAK WALTON by CHARLES COTTON THE LOVELINESS OF LOVE by GEORGE DARLEY WHEN THERE IS PEACE by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON ODE INSCRIBED TO W.H. CHANNING by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE LITTLE PEACH by EUGENE FIELD DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 4. THE MOON'S ORCHESTRA by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MRS. BENJAMIN PANTIER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |