Queen Elizabeth's Letter Bearer 1597 Poem by Sheena Blackhall

I have it almost first hand for a fact
(My cousin's sword-maker, heard it straight
From an ambassador who bore her mail)
The queen does not age well,
And should, forsooth,
Cover those attributes young women flaunt.

I'm told that from a distance she appeared
Like a Toledo jewel, all pearly gold
Her red wig glittering with silver thread
Great russet locks around her shoulders curled

But mark you, she is sixty years of age
And 40 years have passed since she was crowned
Though on her forehead lay a drop of pearls
Her face is ancient, long and sunken in
Her yellow teeth, ill spaced with many missing
Such marks of time all beauty must confound

The front of her high-collared dress was open
Ajar, to show her bare from breast to throat
The lining, bright with tiny rubies, pearls
Her breasts on show, once delicate and white
Were wrinkled like the dugs of an old goat

(But keep this to yourself, for like her sire
Her critics seldom keep their heads for long)
Life's little cobble's ill to keep afloat