Various - Ballads of Beauty

Beauty gives
The features perfectness, and to the form
Its delicate proportions: she may stain
The eye with a celestial blue, the cheek
With carmine of the sunset; she may breathe
Grace into every motion, like the play
Of the least visible tissue of a cloud;
She may give all that's rich – her own
Bright cestus – and one glance of Intellect,
Like stronger magic, will outshine it all.

Slowly from the western hill-sides
Fades the sunset's ruddy light,
While the birds amid the tree-tops
Softly chirp their sweet "Good-night."

Where the elm trees' spreading branches
Hide the streamlets with their shades,
Stands the fair-faced, blue-eyed Dolly,
Flower of all the village maids, —

Looking, in the growing twilight,
Towards the grassy fields ahead,
Listening still, with eye expectant,
For the ever-welcome tread.

From across the verdant meadow
Comes a whistle, loud and shrill,
Sounding through the evening stillness,
Seemeth but the whip-poor-will.

But the fair face glows still brighter,
And the eyes more eager grow,
As the notes come near and nearer,
Louder than the streamlet's flow.

Soon she hears the well-known music
Of his voice, borne on the air:
"Don't you hear me coming, Dolly?
Dolly, dear, I'll soon be there."

And the one she's long been waiting,
Hat upraised, now comes in sight,
Hastening towards the blue-eyed maiden,
Waiting in the soft twilight.

Happy hearts, so young and trusting,
May no frost e'er blight your love,
But may blessings all unnumbered
Fall upon you from above!

A brook flashed from a rugged height,
Merrily, merrily glancing;
The songs of the summer light
Kept time to the tune of its dancing.
Fond eyes looked on its dewy sheen,
Reading fate in its waters;
"Darling, the song of the brook is for you,
Fairest of earth's dear daughters."
Bright eyes looked on its dewy sheen,
And the songs of their lives rang clearly, —
"The world is fair! the world is fair!"
"And I love, I love you dearly."

Autumn leaves, like a fairy fleet,
Swept down towards the river;
The false wind moaned through the dreary sleet,
"The flowers are dead forever!"
Sad eyes looked down on the shadowed stream,
Reading fate in its measure:
"For me your song, for my withered life,
Pain in the mask of pleasure."
Sad eyes looked on the shadowed stream,
And the songs of their lives rang clearly, —
"The world is sad! the world is sad!"
"Oh! I loved, I loved him dearly."

A flush, a glow on the winter skies,
Earth smiles in her happy dreaming;
Whispers the wind, "Arise! arise!
The dawn of spring is beaming."
Calm eyes look down on the sunny brook,
With a smile that has conquered sadness —
"Your song is for me in this sweet spring-time,
In heaven is perfect gladness."
Calm eyes look on its dewy sheen,
And the songs of their lives ring gayly, —
"The spring is here! the spring is here!"
"I find strength for my burden daily."

Come in the evening or come in the morning,
Come when you're looked for or come without warning,
Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,
And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you!
Light is my heart since the day we were plighted,
Red is my cheek that they told me was blighted;
The green of the trees looks far greener than ever,
And the linnets are singing, "True lovers don't sever!"

I'll pull you sweet flowers, to wear if you choose them,
Or, after you've kissed them, they'll lie on my bosom;
I'll fetch from the mountain its breeze to inspire you;
I'll fetch from my fancy a tale that won't tire you.
Oh! your step's like the rain to the summer-vexed farmer,
Or sabre and shield to a knight without armor.
I'll sing you sweet songs till the stars rise above me,
Then, wandering, I'll wish you in silence to love me.

We'll look through the trees at the cliff and the eyrie;
We'll tread round the rath on the track of the fairy;
We'll look on the stars, and we'll list to the river,
Till you ask of your darling what gift you can give her.
Oh! she'll whisper you, – "Love, as unchangeably beaming,
And trust, when in secret, most tunefully streaming,
Till the starlight of heaven above us shall quiver,
As our souls flow in one down eternity's river."

So come in the evening or come in the morning,
Come when you're looked for or come without warning,
Kisses and welcome you'll find here before you,
And the oftener you come here the more I'll adore you!
Light is my heart since the day we were plighted,
Red is my cheek that they told me was blighted;
The green of the trees looks far greener than ever,
And the linnets are singing, "True lovers don't sever!"

Into my heart a silent look
Flashed from thy careless eyes;
And what before was shadow, took
The light of summer skies.
The first-born Love was in that look;
The Venus rose from out the deep
Of those inspiring eyes.

My life, like some lone, solemn spot
A spirit passes o'er,
Grew instinct with a glory not
In earth or heaven before.
Sweet trouble stirred the haunted spot,
And shook the leaves of every thought
Thy presence wandered o'er!

My being yearned, and crept to thine,
As if in times of yore
Thy soul had been a part of mine,
Which claimed it back once more —
Thy very self no longer thine,
But merged in that delicious life
Which made us ONE of yore!

There bloomed beside thee forms as fair,
There murmured tones as sweet;
But round thee breathed the enchanted air
'Twas life and death to meet.
And henceforth thou alone wert fair,
And though the stars had sung for joy,
Thy whisper only sweet!

O fairest of the rural maids!
Thy birth was in the forest shades;
Green boughs, and glimpses of the sky,
Were all that met thine infant eye.

Thy sports, thy wanderings, when a child,
Were ever in the sylvan wild;
And all the beauty of the place
Is in thy heart and on thy face.

The twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of thy locks;
Thy step is as the wind, that weaves
Its playful way among the leaves.

Thine eyes are springs, in whose serene
And silent waters heaven is seen;
Their lashes are the herbs that look
On their young figures in the brook.

The forest depths, by foot unpressed,
Are not more sinless than thy breast;
The holy peace that fills the air
Of those calm solitudes, is there.