Page:Poems and ballads (IA balladspoems00swinrich).pdf/214

The bowed nose, fallen from goodlihead;
Foul flapping ears like water‑flags;
Peaked chin, and cheeks all waste and dead,
And lips that are two skinny rags:

ix.

'Thus endeth all the beauty of us.

The arms made short, the hands made lean,
The shoulders bowed and ruinous,
The breasts, alack! all fallen in;
The flanks too, like the breasts, grown thin;
** *** *** ***** *****, *** ** **!
*** *** **** ******, ** ****** *** ****,
**** *** **** ****** ****** ** *******-****.

x.

'So we make moan for the old sweet days,

Poor old light women, two or three
Squatting above the straw‑fire's blaze,
The bosom crushed against the knee,