The Secrets of the Old + 

I have old women’s secrets now + 

That had those of the young; + 

Madge tells me what I dared not think + 

When my blood was strong, + 

And what had drowned a lover once + 

Sounds like an old song. + 

Though Margery is stricken dumb + 

If thrown in Madge’s way, + 

We three make up a solitude; + 

For none alive to-day + 

Can know the stories that we know + 

Or say the things we say: + 

How such a man pleased women most + 

Of all that are gone, + 

How such a pair loved many years + 

And such a pair but one, + 

Stories of the bed of straw + 

Or the bed of down. + 