BEFORE THE MIRROR (A FRAGMENT)

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BEFORE THE MIRROR

(A FRAGMENT)

White rose in red rose-garden

      Is not so white;

Snowdrops that plead for pardon

      And pine for fright

Because the hard East blows

Over their maiden rows

      Grow not as this face grows from pale to bright.

Behind the veil, forbidden,

      Shut up from sight,

Love, is there sorrow hidden,

      Is there delight?

Is joy thy dower or grief,

White rose of weary leaf,

      Late rose whose life is brief, whose loves are light?

Soft snows that hard winds harden

      Till each flake bite

Fill all the flowerless garden

      Whose flowers took flight

Long since when summer ceased,

And men rose up from feast,

      And warm west wind grew east, and warm day night.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler SYMPHONY IN WHITE № 2: THE LITTLE WHITE GIRL Oil on canvas. 1864 Tate, London

Джеймс Эббот Макнейл Уистлер СИМФОНИЯ В БЕЛОМ № 2: МАЛЕНЬКАЯ БЕЛАЯ ДЕВУШКА Холст, масло. 1864 Галерея Тейт, Лондон