Only a bird in a gilded cage

The ballroom was filled with fashion's throng
It shone with a thousand lights
And there was a woman who passed along
The fairest of all the sights
A girl to her lover then softly sighed
“There's riches at her command”
“But she married for wealth not for love” he cried
Tho' she lives in a mansion grand.

She's only a bird in a gilded cage
A beautiful sight to see
You may think she's happy and free from care
She's not though she seems to be
'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life
For youth cannot mate with age
And her beauty was sold for an old man's gold
She's a bird in a silver cage.

The beautiful woman surveyed the scene
Her flatterers by the score
Her gems were the purest, her gown divine
So what could a woman want more
But memory brings back the face of a lad
Whose love she had turned aside
But happiness cannot be bought with gold
Although she's a rich man's bride.

I stood in a churchyard just at eve
When sunset adorned the West
And looked at the people who'd come to grieve
For loved ones now laid to rest
A tall marble monument marked the grave
Of one who'd been fashion's queen
And I thought she is happier here at rest
Than to have people say, when seen.