A cracked oval mirror stands beside wilted roses, a small lidded jar and pale lace on a dusty rose surface.

Original artwork, not a still

Cymon and Iphigenia

John Dryden

Old as I am, for ladies’ love unfit, The power of beauty I remember yet.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker separates present age from a remembered response to beauty. Although he considers himself no longer suited to romantic attention, he has not forgotten its power. The admission allows memory to preserve an experience that his description of the present seems to place beyond reach.

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