Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare: Poems. 1914.
“Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good”
The Passionate Pilgrim XIII
BEAUTY is but a vain and doubtful good; |
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A shining gloss that vadeth suddenly; |
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A flower that dies when first it ’gins to bud; |
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A brittle glass that ’s broken presently: |
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A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, |
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Lost, vaded, broken, dead within an hour. |
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And as goods lost are seld or never found, |
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As vaded gloss no rubbing will refresh, |
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As flowers dead lie wither’d on the ground, |
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As broken glass no cement can redress, |
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So beauty blemish’d once ’s for ever lost, |
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In spite of physic, painting, pain, and cost. |
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