Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A LADY, by ANGELINA S. MUMFORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A LADY, by                    
First Line: Thine eyes are very beautiful!
Last Line: And for thy only child.
Alternate Author Name(s): Picciola
Subject(s): Women


THINE eyes are very beautiful!
I would they were less bright,
For then the serpent shining there
Could never pain my sight.

I would that sometimes they were seen
To shed repentant tears,
O'er all the ruin of thy heart,
O'er all the blight of years.

Thy brow so very queenly too,
Truth's coronet should grace;
But Falsehood's circlet dark too oft
Usurps the sacred place.

And though thy lip smiles lovingly,
And though thy cheek is fair;
Where dimpling graces should abide
Deceit hath made its lair.

I've been among the foolish ones
Who loud thy praises sing,
And almost wept to think thou art
A hollow-hearted thing:

Unworthy all the flattery
Thou livest to secure;
Unlovely in thy inner life,
Though outwardly so pure.

Ah! yes, thy face is beautiful,
But vainly there I trace
The type of inward purity,
And spiritual grace.

And gloomy is the prophecy,
That fills my boding heart;
For me thou never hast deceived
With thine unequall'd art.

And they who know thy treachery,
Whom thou hast once beguiled,
They spare thee for thy husband's sake,
And for thy only child.





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