BLESSED be Beauty, that awaits Our vision at our very gates! There hangs above these meadows low As richly strange an opal glow As deepens into violet Behind a Moorish minaret, Or where the Sphinx outstares the years. The little hills of Ramapo Smile eastward full as goldenly When fades the last supplanted star As mighty mountains, rising far Beyond the leagues of sapphire sea That cradle white Algiers. BLESSED be God who gave to me A thankful heart and eyes that see, Who set my feet in quiet ways Amid his garden sweet with praise. And yet -- oh Father! what of them Who may not even touch the hem Of Beauty's robe -- at the harsh urge Of hopeless pain and poverty Forever plying weary hands, Forever straining weary eyes, To whom the sun's ecstatic rise Means one day more of toil's demands -- The lifting of the scourge? AND yet, once more -- a Beauty lies Beyond the gaze of any eyes, Beyond the sunset islands far, Above the throbbing morning-star, And deeper than the sea is deep. I have beheld, as one in sleep Beholds a dream scarce understood, Two lives defaced as failures are, Ruins to pity and despise, Maimed butts of fortune, best forgot. These captives of the sordid lot Looked in each other's faded eyes And all their world was good. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE VANTAGE POINT by ROBERT FROST ROCK ME TO SLEEP by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN UPON HIS PICTURE by THOMAS RANDOLPH SONNET TO LIBERTY by OSCAR WILDE GRIEF WAS SENT THEE FOR THY GOOD by THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY IN THE FOREST by MAURICE BUCHOR EPISTLE FROM ESOPUS TO MARIA by ROBERT BURNS ANTHEM FOR THE CHILDREN OF CHRIST'S HOSPITAL by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |