English | PoetryNook

Beauty

Beauty, thou wild fantastick Ape,
Who dost in ev'ry Country change thy shape!
Here black, there brown, here tawny, and there white;
Thou Flatt'rer which compli'st with every sight!
Thou Babel which confound'st the Ey
With unintelligible variety!
Who hast no certain What, nor Where,
But vary'st still, and dost thy self declare
Inconstant, as thy she-Professors are.

Beauty, Loves Scene and Maskerade,
So gay by well-plac'd Lights, and Distance made;
False Coyn, with which th' Impostor cheats us still;

Beauty, Since You So Much Desire

Beauty, since you so much desire
To know the place of Cupid's fire,
About you somewhere doth it rest,
Yet never harbour'd in your breast,
Nor gout-like in your heel or toe,--
What fool would seek Love's flame so low?
But a little higher, but a little higher,
There, there, O there lies Cupid's fire.

Think not, when Cupid most you scorn,
Men judge that you of ice were born;
For though you cast love at your heel,
His fury yet sometimes you feel:
And whereabouts if you would know,
I tell you still not in your toe:

The Definition of Beauty

Beauty no other thing is than a beam
Flashed out between the middle and extreme.

Sonnet: He compares all Things with his Lady, and finds them wanting

Beauty in woman; the high will's decree;
Fair knighthood armed for manly exercise;
The pleasant song of birds; love's soft replies;
The strength of rapid ships upon the sea;
The serene air when light begins to be;
The white snow, without wind that falls and lies;
Fields of all flower; the place where waters rise;
Silver and gold; azure in jewellery: —
Weighed against these the sweet and quiet worth
Which my dear lady cherishes at heart
Might seem a little matter to be shown;
Being truly, over these, as much apart

Dying

Beauty goes out to meet a greater beauty,
— Something we cannot grasp, who cry our loss —
Something God meant when he made the first morning,
— Something he meant, who stumbled with a cross!

Beauty goes out to meet a greater beauty,
Something we cannot grasp, who cry our loss —
Something God meant when he made the first morning,
Something he meant, who stumbled with a cross!

On the Grave

of a young Cavalry Officer killed in the Valley of Virginia.

Beauty and youth, with manners sweet, and friends —
Gold, yet a mind not unenriched had he
Whom here low violets veil from eyes.
But all these gifts transcended be:
His happier fortune in this mound you see.

The Geraldine's Daughter

A beauty all stainless, a pearl of a maiden,
Has plunged me in trouble, and wounded my heart.
With sorrow and gloom are my soul overladen;
An anguish is there that will never depart.
I could voyage to Egypt across the deep water,
Nor care about bidding dear Eire farewell,
So I only might gaze on the Geraldine's daughter,
And sit by her side in some green, pleasant dell!

Her curling locks wave round her figure of lightness,
All dazzling and long, like the purest of gold;
Her blue eyes resemble twin stars in their brightness,

The Beautiful

The Beautiful, which mocked his fond pursuing,
The poet followed long;
With passionate purpose the shy shadow wooing,
And soul-betraying song.

And still the fervor of his fond endeavor
To him seemed poured in vain,
And all in vain, forever and forever,
The sorrow of his strain.

But when at lasThe perished broken-hearted,
The world, grown dark and dull,
Bewailed the radiance with him departed
Who was the Beautiful.

The Beautiful

The beautiful! what is not perfect here below,
Created by the great Almighty power?
Each grain of sand Omnipotence doth show,
And beauty beameth in the humblest flower.

There's beauty in the budding leaves of spring,
In the maturity of summer born —
And in the many hues that autumn's bring,
And in bright winter's glittering sheen at dawn.

Mark you the smallest insect's many hues;
What beauty in their ever changing shade!
The diamond glistening of the morning dews, —
The sunbeams on the ocean's bosom stayed.

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