Here's one for y'all that'll probably get both sides of this little fray a trifle annoyed, but that I like anyway, if just for it's good annoying qualities. It's called All This Useless Beauty (by Elvis Costello), and I heard it on June Tabor's Angel Tiger album. Ahem, here goes.

It's at times such as this she'd be tempted to spit, if she wasn't so ladylike,
She imagines how she might have lived back when legends & history collide
So she looks to her prince, finding since he's so charmingly slumped at her side
Those days are recalled on the gallery wall,
And she's waiting for passion or humor to strike
What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty, all this useless beauty

Good Friday arrived, the sky darkened on time, till he almost began to negotiate,
And she held his head like a baby & said "It's okay if you cry"
Now he wants her to dress, as if you couldn't guess
He desires to impress his associates
But he's part ugly beast and hellenic deceased
And she finds that the mixture is hard to deny
What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty, all this useless beauty

She won't practice the looks from the great tragic books
That were later defaced disgraced celluloid
They no longer make sense, but you can bet
If she isn't a sweetheart, a plaything or pet
The film turns her into an unveiled threat

Nonsense prevails, modesty fails, grace and virtue turn into stupidity
While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise
While our rulers have feasts on the backsides of beasts
They still think they're the gods of antiquity
If something you missed didn't even exist, it was just an ideal, is that such a surprise?
What shall we do, what shall we do with all this useless beauty, all this useless beauty?

Catfeet