University of Virginia Library

X.

And she was beautiful! her face
Was flushed with an angelic grace;
The amorous sun had wooed it too,
And touched it with a richer hue;
But those who gazed might well declare
They could not wish that face more fair.
Her locks of hyacinthine brown,
O'er the white brow hung loosely down,
Contrasting in the shades they throw,
With the blue, loving eyes below.
And in those eyes there shone a ray,
That like a sweet, consuming fire,
Thrilled every soul with chaste desire,
Yet kept all evil things away.
They who but slightly viewed, had said
Pride was her intimate, for tall
She was—and in her lightest tread
Moved like a princess, but of all
That seeming loftiness, the key
Was an inborn nobility;
The spirit's fire, the crowning charm
Of a mind exquisitely warm:
In whose unsullied leaf was wrought
All that was delicate in thought,
And beautiful in deed, with these,
She sought all living things to please,
But most to act a daughter's part
Was the Aurora of her heart.
So grateful for a kindness! kind
Herself in act, and thought, and mind;
Tis true, the assurance was not loud,
But those who heard might more than guess
The resolution deeply vowed;
Her fine eyes swam with tenderness,
And spoke appeal more eloquent
Than words can breathe, or fancy paint.
Their passionate orbs such brilliance haunted,
As soothed by turns, by turns enchanted;
They seemed to chain the gazer's soul
As if with an electric link,
And most he felt their strong controul,
When most their timid glance would shrink.
Like sunshine somewhat spent in shade,
The smile upon her features played;
A glory, bursting half from gloom,
So vividly, and yet so swift,
We cannot fix its transient bloom,
For pleasure's, or for sorrow's gift,
But deem it heaven's own Cherubin,
Lighting the lamp of soul within.
From little less can rise the trance
Of spirit glowing to embrace
Celestial presences, the glance
Which looks abroad through time and space
For one to whom the heart's young glow
Of early love may overflow;
Such glance as Julia loved to cast,
When childhood's rosy hours were past.