A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty Poem by Ogden Nash

A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty

Rating: 3.6


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 is 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?

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Mike Dunn 30 May 2006

A beautiful reflection on what makes one old... does the passage of time affect our age? What is one day from the next if we do not make it so.

20 11 Reply
Tranquil Ocean 21 January 2007

What a brilliant ending to an awesome poem! ! TO

20 9 Reply
Malini Kadir 23 October 2008

what a superb way of expressing the fear of aging..... the question at the tag end is brilliant!

19 10 Reply
Karen Sinclair 25 October 2012

Beautiful poem....such comforting compassion in the writers words

23 6 Reply
Ken E Hall 24 May 2010

W, ords of a master clever to illustrate age and the withering tick of time, very nice to read!

23 4 Reply
Dr Antony Theodore 14 December 2020

Silly girl, silver girl, Draw the mirror toward you; Time who makes the years to whirl Adorned as he adored you. living in illusions. tony

2 0 Reply
sAbHyAtA 31 May 2018

good poem! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

1 0 Reply
Savita Tyagi 22 December 2017

My my how time changes the thinking.....

3 0 Reply
Tom Allport 27 December 2016

big mistake? mirrors only bring heartache

2 1 Reply
Adrian Martin 27 April 2016

Time...... Tick tick tick it does not wait for you or I, or even the lady Miranda.!

5 1 Reply
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Ogden Nash

Ogden Nash

New York / United States
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