Brittle Beauty

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Brittle beauty that nature made so frail,
Whereof the gift is small, and short the season,
Flowering today, tomorrow apt to fail,
Tickle treasure, abhorred of reason,  [fragile]
Dangerous to deal with, vain, of none avail,
Costly in keeping, passed not worth two peason,  [peas]
Slipper in sliding as is an eel's tail,  [slippery]
Jewel of jeopardy that peril doth assail,
False and untrue, enticed oft to treason,
Enemy to youth: that most may I bewail.
Ah, bitter sweet: infecting as the poison,
 Thou farest as fruit that with the frost is taken:
 Today ready ripe, tomorrow all to-shaken.  [broken]

© Henry Howard