"It Is Not Beauty I Demand " 529 "IT IS NOT BEAUTY I DEMAND" Ir is not Beauty I demand, A crystal brow, the moon's despair, Nor the snow's daughter, a white hand, Nor mermaid's yellow pride of hair: Tell me not of your starry eyes, A bloomy pair of vermeil cheeks Like Hebe's in her ruddiest hours, A breath that softer music speaks Than summer winds a-wooing flowers,— These are but gauds: nay, what are lips? And what are cheeks but ensigns oft Eyes can with baleful ardor burn; Poison can breathe, that erst perfumed; There's many a white hand holds an urn With lovers' hearts to dust consumed. For crystal brows-there's naught within; Give me, instead of Beauty's bust, Yet never linked with error find, One in whose gentle bosom I Could pour my secret heart of woes, Like the care-burthened honey-fly That hides his murmurs in the rose, My earthly Comforter! whose love --- George Darley [1795-1846] SONG SHE is not fair to outward view As many maidens be, Her loveliness I never knew Until she smiled on me; Oh! then I saw her eye was bright, But now her looks are coy and cold, The love-light in her eye: Her very frowns are fairer far Than smiles of other maidens are. Hartley Coleridge [1796-1849] SONG A VIOLET in her lovely hair, A rose upon her bosom fair! But O, her eyes A lovelier violet disclose, And her ripe lips the sweetest rose A lute beneath her graceful hand Eileen Aroon 531 But still her tongue Far richer music calls to birth Than all the minstrel power on earth And thus she moves in tender light, And sheds a graceful influence round, Beneath her feet! Charles Swain [1801-1874] EILEEN AROON WHEN like the early rose, Eileen Aroon! Beauty in childhood blows, When, like a diadem, Buds blush around the stem, Which is the fairest gem? - Is it the laughing eye, Eileen Aroon! Is it the timid sigh, Eileen Aroon! Is it the tender tone, Soft as the stringed harp's moan? O, it is truth alone, Eileen Aroon! When like the rising day, Eileen Aroon! Love sends his early ray, What makes his dawning glow, Only the constant know: Eileen Aroon! I know a valley fair, Eileen Aroon! I knew a cottage there, Far in that valley's shade Who in the song so sweet? Who in the dance so fleet? Dear were her charms to me Dearer her laughter free, Dearest her constancy,- Eileen Aroon! Were she no longer true, What should her lover do? Fly with his broken chain Far o'er the sounding main, Eileen Aroon! Youth must with time decay, Beauty must fade away, Eileen Aroon! Castles are sacked in war, Chieftains are scattered far, Truth is a fixed star, Eileen Aroon! Gerald Griffin [1803-1840] ANNIE LAURIE MAXWELTON braes are bonnie Where early fa's the dew, Gie'd me her promise true To Helen Gie'd me her promise true, Her brow is like the snaw-drift; That e'er the sun shone on- Like dew on the gowan lying And like the winds in summer sighing, Her voice is low and sweet And she's a' the world to me; And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay me doun and dee. TO HELEN William Douglas [ ? ] HELEN, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicæan barks of yore, On desperate seas long wont to roam, Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche Edgar Allan Poe [1809-1849] |