Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/71

Rh

A smile that turns the sunny side o' the heart

On all the world, as if herself did win

By what she lavished on an open mart:—

Let no man call the liberal sweetness, sin,—

While friends may whisper, as they stand apart,

"Methinks there's still some warmer place within."

Her azure eyes, dark lashes hold in fee:

Her fair superfluous ringlets, without check,

Drop after one another down her neck;

As many to each cheek as you might see

Green leaves to a wild rose. This sign, outwardly,

And a like woman-covering seems to deck

Her inner nature. For she will not fleck

World's sunshine with a finger. Sympathy

Must call her in Love's name! and then, I know,

She rises up, and brightens, as she should,

And lights her smile for comfort, and is slow

In nothing of high-hearted fortitude.

To smell this flower, come near it: such can grow

In that sole garden where Christ's brow dropped blood.