Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A Maiden to Her Mirror

He said he loved me! Then he called my hair
  Silk threads wherewith sly Cupid strings his bow,
  My cheek a rose leaf fallen on new snow;
And swore my round, full throat would bring despair
To Venus or to Psyche.

                      Time and care
  Will fade these locks; the merry god, I trow,
  Uses no grizzled cords upon his bow.
How will it be when I, no longer fair,
  Plead for his kiss with cheeks whence long ago
The early snowflakes melted quite away,
The rose leaf died--and in whose sallow clay
  Lie the deep sunken tracks of life’s gaunt crow?

When this full throat shall wattle fold on fold,
  Like some ripe peach left drying on a wall,
  Or like a spent accordion, when all
Its music has exhaled--will love grow cold?

1. The Birth of the Orchid
2. The Black Charger
3. All the World
4. At Set of Sun
5. The Call (All wantonly in hours of joy)

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