Samuel Barber — 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 Marg'ry is stricken dumb If thrown in Madge's way We three make up a solitude; For none alive today 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