Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers

by W. A. Clouston

A beard is but the vizard of the face,

That nature orders for no other place;

The fringe and tassel of a countenance

That hides his person from another man’s,

And, like the Roman habits of their youth,

Is never worn until his perfect growth.

And in another set of verses he has again a fling at the obnoxious beard of the same preacher:

This reverend brother, like a goat,

Did wear a tail upon his throat;

The fringe and tassel of a face