Who will in fairest book of Nature know How virtue may best lodged in beauty be, Let him but learn of love to read in thee, Stella, those fair lines which true goodness show. There shall he find all vices' overthrow, Not by rude force, but sweetest sovereignty Of reason, from whose light those night birds fly, That inward sun in thine eyes shineth so. And, not content to be perfection's heir Thyself, dost strive all minds that way to move, Who mark in thee what is in thee most fair. So while thy beauty draws the heart to love, As fast thy virtue bends that love to good. "But ah," Desire still cries, "give me some food." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SYMPATHY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON TWO POEMS FROM THE WAR: 2 by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH FOUND WANTING by EMILY DICKINSON DIRGE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE SWAN; TO VICTOR HUGO by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE PSALM 89 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |