Cento (1) : Remember a Beauty
by Melanie Armstrong

Here where the world is quiet (2)
I remember,
       I remember(3)
Beautiful faces are those that wear (4)

My grandmother, she, at the age of eighty three (5)
Who has known heights and depths shall not again (6)
(I love you) (7)

Among the beautiful pictures (8)
I remember,
       I remember
Who walks with beauty has no need of fear (9)

My grandmother, she, at the age of eighty three
Representing nothing on God’s earth now (10)
She walks in beauty like the night (11)

Fare thee well! And if forever (12)
I remember
       I remember
Your soul is of my soul such a part. (13)

Melanie Armstrong graduated from Fairhaven’s Law and Diversity Program in Spring 2005.

Footnotes

1. A cento is a poetry form that creates a poem from lines borrowed from other poets.

2. Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Garden of Proserpine

3. Thomas Hood, I Remember. I Remember

4. Ellen Allerton, Beautiful Things

5. Unknown

6. Mary Brent Whiteside, Who Has Known Heights

7. Roy Croft, Love

8. Alice Cary, Among the Beautiful Pictures

9. Unknown

10. Major Samuel Alroy Jonas, Who Walks with Beauty

11. Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty

12. Lord Byron, Fare Thee Well

13. Unknown