Literature Network » Thomas Hardy » Late Lyrics and Earlier » The Beauty

The Beauty

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O do not praise my beauty more,
   In such word-wild degree,
And say I am one all eyes adore;
   For these things harass me!
But do for ever softly say:
   "From now unto the end
Come weal, come wanzing, come what may,
   Dear, I will be your friend."
I hate my beauty in the glass:
   My beauty is not I:
I wear it:  none cares whether, alas,
   Its wearer live or die!
The inner I O care for, then,
   Yea, me and what I am,
And shall be at the gray hour when
   My cheek begins to clam.

Note.--"The Regent Street beauty, Miss Verrey, the Swiss
confectioner's daughter, whose personal attractions have been so
mischievously exaggerated, died of fever on Monday evening, brought
on by the annoyance she had been for some time subject to."--London
paper, October 1828.

Literature Network » Thomas Hardy » Late Lyrics and Earlier » The Beauty