University of Virginia Library

She was a miniature of loveliness.
The glow, and flush of youth and beauty hung
A veil of deep carnation o'er her mien,
And o'er her neck, in gay profusion, fell
Her auburn tresses loose from their egrette.
Her full dark eye shot light and life around,
And Love amid its beams with beauty reigned.
Oft, ere the mists, that cinctured mountain's height,
Melted 'neath sunbeams red from Phœbus' car,
She sought the lone lagoon, where Venus flung
Her virgin blushes o'er the crystal wave;
And there, as nature o'er the mead unrolled
The heaven-graved volume of exhaustless lore,
Calm Contemplation, that celestial nymph,
Whose silent eye beams glory's lambent fire,
Hung on the vault, that spans the pale blue skies,
And gazed, not as the sceptic's eyeballs roll
O'er vacancy, but on the countless gems
That gleam along the bright aerial dales,
Where nature's ardent amateur imbibes
Ethereal fervour, and celestial worth.
Oh! wrapt to ecstacy, in abstraction lost
To earth's rude turmoil, and collisions dire,
She sat, like rich Idallia's queen amid
The flowery groves of Tempe, where Peneus
Wafted on his wave the fragrant odours
Of a godlike feast; but unlike the queen
Of love and beauty, unallured by charms,
Of sensual mould, her angelic soul
Shed forth its notes responsive to the harps
Of spotless, glory veiled seraphic choirs.
Each sound of earth was hushed to grim repose,
Save where the odour-breathing breeze on light
And silvery pinions rustled mid the groves,
Where the lone-musing melancholy bird
Of silence poured its dulcet music forth
To the immortal Sovereign of the spheres;
Whose winning notes through raven night's expanse
Floated on zephyr's soft and dewy wings
Then would she waken from her reverie
Of realms unearthly, and hang on the strain,
Which amorous echo, through each lonely glen,
And dell, and grotto, wafted with delight.
And when sweet Philomel had sung her last
Exulting vigil hymn, the soaring lark
Caught its full echo for her matin song,
And shed her choral carols through the skies;
While beauty's voice the lauding chorus raised
And then Aurora flung her farewell beams
Athwart the sky; and golden-crested morn
Glittered with splendour o'er the roscid vales.
She loved this glorious solitude, and trod,
With downy footstep, the extatic grove,
Reckless, her marble brow, and tresses bright
Gave full effulgence to the glowing beams
That spangled brightest, where the evening dew
Its pure libations had from heaven shed;
As the deep lotus in the thorny wild
Gems the full sunbeams, e'en till hooded Eve
Restore the treasure light had snatched away.

Nature to her had charms unknown to those
Whose dull unheeding faculties are warped,
And wrung for sordid gold; essence holy,
Uncontaminate mingles not with clay,
Love and beauty cheer o'er saddened hours
Not oft, nor long; pure ethereal fire
Illumines not this dark, and godless world.
I muse full oft upon that graceful form,
And heavenly mien, which nature made for bliss;
But baseless charms, and visionary spells
Robe light's viewless phantom with the folds
And curves, that decked her earthly frame; and mute
Expectation foils its own assurance.