Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/241

Rh IDEAL BEAUTY.

me a picture where the golden hair,

Like sunlight, falls around the chiselled face

Of Grecian imaging;—limn me the grace

Of spiritual beauty, jewel rare,

In features human yet divinely fair:

Let, through the dark-blue splendour of the eye,

Ethereal Hope shine star-like with chaste Love,

And on the brow a wisdom from above,

And on the lip a happy secret lie,

Fraught with the spirit's sweetest sorcery;

Suffuse her face with Music, and the charm—

The animated glow of lofty Thought;

Let Cynthia's mien, with stately mildness fraught

And queenly grace, adorn th' ideal form;

And let it stand on some green isle of bliss,

Where seraphs stoop to woo her witching kiss.

"Kappa."