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by Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928)

Former beauties
 (Sung text for setting by A. Downes)
 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

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