Maiden To Her Mirror

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2><SPAN name="A_Maiden_To_Her_Mirror" id="A_Maiden_To_Her_Mirror"></SPAN><b>A Maiden To Her Mirror</b></h2> <p>He said he loved me! Then he called my hair<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Silk threads wherewith sly Cupid strings his bow,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">My cheek a rose leaf fallen on new snow;</span><br/> And swore my round, full throat would bring despair<br/> To Venus or to Psyche.</p> <p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Time and care</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Will fade these locks; the merry god, I trow,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Uses no grizzled cords upon his bow.</span><br/> How will it be when I, no longer fair,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Plead for his kiss with cheeks whence long ago</span><br/> The early snowflakes melted quite away,<br/> The rose leaf died&mdash;and in whose sallow clay<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lie the deep sunken tracks of life's gaunt crow?</span></p> <p>When this full throat shall wattle fold on fold,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like some ripe peach left drying on a wall,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or like a spent accordion, when all</span><br/> Its music has exhaled&mdash;will love grow cold?</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />