Thomas Hardy

Faithful Wilson

‘I say she’s handsome, by all laws
Of beauty, if wife ever was!’
Wilson insists thus, though each day
The years fret Fanny towards decay.
‘She was once beauteous as a jewel,’
Hint friends; ‘but Time, of course, is cruel.’
Still Wilson does not quite feel how,
Once fair, she can be different now.

  Partly from Strato of Sardis