WHAT'S the brightness of a brow? What's a mouth of pearls and corals? Beauty vanishes like a vapor, Preach the men of musty morals! Should the crowd then, ages since, Have shut their ears to singing Homer, Because the music fled as soon As fleets the violets' aroma? Ah, for me, I thrill to see The bloom a velvet cheek discloses, Made of dust -- I well believe it! So are lilies, so are roses! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 5 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE BLASPHEMER'S WARNING; A LAY OF ST. ROMWOLD by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM NON EST MEUM, SI MUGIAT AFRICUS MALUS PROCELLIS ... by JOHN BYROM LINES ON MY NEW CHILD SWEETHEART by THOMAS CAMPBELL THE GARDENER'S CAT by PATRICK REGINALD CHALMERS J. T. by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE |