Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems By the Lady E. Stuart Wortley. In Three Vols |
 | I, II, III. |
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SONNET, ON A PICTURE. |
 | Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems |  |
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SONNET, ON A PICTURE.
It is a beauteous face!—and yet it bringsContending thoughts into the pondering mind,
The soul in all this loveliness enshrined
Hath it kept pure and free its hidden springs?
Hath it retained its earth-surmounting wings?
Hath it rejected petty chains that bind,
And moved still free as sunshine and as wind?
Where free it should remain, midst finite things,
Not slavishly conforming to the wrong—
Where Nature, Faith, and Reason point the right,
In high and conscious innocency strong,
And guarding well its life from stain and blight.
Oh! wherefore ask?—too busy, curious tongue,
Let the eye drink awhile, untroubled, its delight.
| Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | |