Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. IV. The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti
Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)‘When Helen first saw wrinkles’
W
(’Twas when some fifty long had settled there
And intermarried and brancht off awide),
She threw herself upon her couch, and wept;
On this side hung her head, and over that
Listlessly she let fall the faithless brass
That made the men as faithless.
But when you
Found them, or fancied them, and would not hear
That they were only vestiges of smiles,
Or the impression of some amorous hair
Astray from cloistered curls and roseat band,
Which had been lying there all night perhaps
Upon a skin so soft … No, no, you said,
Sure, they are coming, yes, are come, are here …
Well, and what matters it … while you are too!