by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)
Former beauties Matches base text
Language: English
These market-dames, mid-aged, with lips thin-drawn, And tissues sere, Are they the ones we loved in years agone, And courted here? Are these the muslined pink young things to whom We vowed and swore In nooks on summer Sundays by the Froom, Or Budmouth shore? Do they remember those gay tunes we trod Clasped on the green; Aye; trod till moonlight set on the beaten sod A satin sheen? They must forget, forget! They cannot know What once they were, Or memory would transfigure them, and show Them always fair.
Composition:
- Set to music by Andrew Downes (1950 - 2023), "Former beauties", op. 1 no. 2 (1973), from Casterbridge Fair, no. 2
Text Authorship:
- by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928), "Former beauties", appears in Time's Laughingstocks and Other Verses, in At Casterbridge Fair, no. 2, first published 1909
See other settings of this text.
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 90