Explore "Beauty is Vain" by Christina Georgina Rossetti on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
While roses are so red, / While lilies are so white, / Shall a woman exalt her face / Because it gives delight? / She's not so sweet as a rose, / A lily's straighter than she, / And if she were as red or white / She'd be but one of three.
Whether she flush in love's summer / Or in its winter grow pale, / Whether she flaunt her beauty / Or hide it away in a veil, / Be she red or white, / And stand she erect or bowed, / Time will win the race he runs with her / And hide her away in a shroud.