The Poetry Corner

No Rival Like the Past

By Laurence Hope (Adela Florence Cory Nicolson)

As those who eat a Luscious Fruit, sunbaked, Full of sweet juice, with zest, until they find It finished, and their appetite unslaked, And so return and eat the pared-off rind; - We, who in Youth, set white and careless teeth In the Ripe Fruits of Pleasure while they last, Later, creep back to gnaw the cast-off sheath, And find there is no Rival like the Past.