Queen of the Cheval Glass

Oh beauteous queen, 

with enfolded hands,

Guarding close time’s gift 

of crystalline grace,

That shows the swirling flux 

of time’s churning sands,

Which can grant youth or decay 

to any unnaturally divine face.

If nature, in her destructive delight,

 casts forward,

Holding you eternal, 

against the ravages of time,

Her reasons are that 

of time being reconquered

And disgrace imposed 

for the committing of a crime.

Be afraid, 

my looking glass queen, 

her dear treasure,

For she can only keep you 

for a short little while,

Her judgment will come, 

though it upsets her pleasure,

And despite her delays 

she will meet it in style.

Here, my dear queen,

 while your beauty falls to waste,

Time offers up in punishment, 

bitter humility for nature to taste.