Of Men and Makeup

or, An Idea for a Poem Stolen from C.S. Lewis

Makeup is a made-up face,
A base attempt of man to trace
God's loveliest immortal lace
Which it, succeeding, does efface.

Lady, if my conscience reigned,
Although your so-called beauty waned
I'd ask from such things you refrained:
Your face is better left unstained.


Alas, even my poetry frames an argument. This is rhetoric gone too far: the work of the poet hampered by the mind of the logician. But ah well, it is what it is. Consider the argument framed.


I also like this verse, with a different rhyme scheme:

Makeup is a made-up face,
a mask of vanity composed;
hiding God's immortal lace
behind a curtain mortal closed.

And here is C.S. Lewis's original poem:

Lady, a better sculptor far
Chiselled those curves you smudge and mar,
And God did more than lipstick can
To justify your mouth to man.

Edit: (Disclamer) The opinions expressed above do not mean that I think those who use makeup will be found guilty at the Judgement, nor indeed that I think all makeup an evil...