A Lady Thinks She is Thirty
Ogden Nash 1902 (Rye, New York) – 1971 (Baltimore)
Unwillingly Miranda wakes,
Feels the sun with terror,
One unwilling step she takes,
Shuddering to the mirror.
Miranda in Miranda's sight
Is old and gray and dirty;
Twenty-nine she was last night;
This morning she is thirty.
Shining like the morning star,
Like the twilight shining,
Haunted by a calendar,
Miranda sits a-pining.
Silly girl, silver girl,
Draw the mirror toward you;
Time who makes the years to whirl
Adorned as he adored you.
Time is timelessness for you;
Calendars for the human;
What's a year, or thirty, to
Loveliness made woman?
Oh, Night will not see thirty again,
Yet soft her wing, Miranda;
Pick up your glass and tell me, then —
How old is Spring, Miranda?
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Submitted by RobertHaigh on June 10, 2020
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 478 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABAB CDCD XEBE FGFG GHGH IJIJ |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 658 |
Words | 118 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"A Lady Thinks She is Thirty" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 5 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/53639/a-lady-thinks-she-is-thirty>.
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