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.