Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A LADY'S PORTRAIT, by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE First Line: At last, with all its silent grace Last Line: The vision of this lady's face. Subject(s): Alexander, John White (1856-1915); Paintings & Painters; Portraits; Wheaton, Eliza Baylies (1809-1905) | ||||||||
AT last, with all its silent grace, Amid the blossoms of the May There breaks upon our eyes to-day This vision of a lady's face. You know her? Ay, you need not tell: A thousand daughters in the land Have known the welcome of that hand, And felt its pressure of farewell. What benedictions in her gaze, What memories hover around her chair, As, sitting in the sunset there, She wears the crown of well spent days! O little birds that come to bless Our woodlands, round her doorway sing; Beneath her windows, flowers of spring, Lift up to her your loveliness. For she, in many a heart of need, Hath put a song in place of tears, And scattered down these golden years The flower of many a kindly deed. Lo, like a seed upon the ground, There fell a thought once from her heart; If you would know how large the part That thought has stood for, look around! For one who loved her planted it; One cherished it for what might be; She watched the seed become the Tree Beneath whose grateful shade we sit. A thousand daughters did I say? Ah! as I see the lengthening line Far down the future's pathway shine, And pass, and still not pass away, I cannot count them! Come and go They will forever; grove and hall And each familiar scene they all Will cherish; and the Tree will grow. But when, in some remoter hour, Strangers behold how great the task Accomplished, and are moved to ask Whence came the impulse and the power, Then silently, within this place Of such beginnings, there will rise, For answer to their wondering eyes, The vision of this lady's face. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SONG OF BATTLE by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE A VOICE by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE AD MUSAM by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE ALL SOUL'S EVE by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE AN APOSTOLIC MAN by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE AN EAGLE-SPIRIT by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE AN OLD SAW by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE CONSCIENCE by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE COOPERATION by SAMUEL VALENTINE COLE |
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