Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Sentiment: II. Life | | The One White Hair | | Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) |
| | | THE WISEST of the wise | |
| Listen to pretty lies, | |
| And love to hear them told; | |
| Doubt not that Solomon | |
| Listened to many a one,— | 5 |
| Some in his youth, and more when he grew old. | |
| |
| I never sat among | |
| The choir of Wisdom’s song, | |
| But pretty lies loved I | |
| As much as any king,— | 10 |
| When youth was on the wing, | |
| And (must it then be told?) when youth had quite gone by. | |
| |
| Alas! and I have not | |
| The pleasant hour forgot, | |
| When one pert lady said,— | 15 |
| “O Landor! I am quite | |
| Bewildered with affright; | |
| I see (sit quiet now!) a white hair on your head!” | |
| |
| Another, more benign, | |
| Drew out that hair of mine, | 20 |
| And in her own dark hair | |
| Pretended she had found | |
| That one, and twirled it round.— | |
| Fair as she was, she never was so fair. | | | | |
|
|
