When Death from some fair face
Is stealing life away,
All weep save she the grace
That earth must lose to-day.
When Time from some fair face
Steals beauty year by year;
For her slow-fading grace
Who gives save she a tear?
Yet Death not often dares
To wake the world's distress,
While Time, the cunning, mars
Surely all loveliness.
And though by breath and breath,
Fades all our fairest prime;
Men shrink from cruel Death,
But honor crafty Time.