Classic Poem

FROM DECATUR , AN OPERA

The lily's mirror is the pond,
The rose's mirror is the dew,
The empress's the diamond,
And in my mirror I see you .
O am I fit for you to cull?
In your eyes am I beautiful?
Your glorious strength shall I consume,
And with my weakness make perfume? —
Our features blend as man and wife
And flower in immortal life?

The star has mirrors in the air,
The rainbow, mirrors, in the rain,
But thou art mirrored everywhere,
In all my bliss, in all my pain!
O let me gaze upon the charms,
Worthy to enter in thy arms!
My mind is but a giddy scroll,
My beauty is my only soul, —
Be thine career! the glorious strife!
Take me in thy immortal life!

Thy fame has mirrors in the crowd,
Thy courage shines in thy cuirass,
The guns reflect thy victories loud:
My echo is my Looking Glass.
O, till thou drink me in thy kiss,
I no assurance have but this, —
That I am fit to blend with thee,
My face in immortality
With thine, whose eyes reflect thy wife,
In crystal of immortal life!