Lyrical Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

What pearl of price within her lay
I could not know when first I met her
So little studious for herself,
Almost she ask'd we should forget her:
As the rose-heart at prime of dawn,
Herself within herself withdrawn:
And yet we felt that something there
Was fairer than the fairest fair.

I mark'd her goings through the day,
Intent upon her maiden mission:
The manners moulded on the mind;
The flawless sense, the sweet decision:
So gracious to the hands she task'd,
She seem'd to do the thing she ask'd:
And then I knew that something there
Was fairer than the fairest fair.

Her eyes spoke peace; and voice and step
The message of her eyes repeated;

Truth halo-bright about her brows,
And Faith on the fair forehead seated:—
And lips where Candour holds his throne,
And sense and sweetness are at one:
I look and look; and something there
Is fairer than the fairest fair.

As some still upward-gazing lake
Round which the mountain-rampart closes,
Crystalline bright and diamond pure,
In azure depth of peace reposes;
And Heaven comes down with all its grace
To find itself within her face;
And the heart owns that something there
Is fairer than the fairest fair.

‘O just and faithful child of God!
Thrice happy he,’ I cried, ‘who by her
Finds in her eyes the home of home,
Reads in her smile his heart's desire;
The smile of beauty from above,
Of equable and perfect love!’
—-I sigh'd—she smiled; and something there
Was fairer than the fairest fair.