Massachusetts Spy And Worcester Advertiser

BEAUTY.
By Rev. G. Croly.

I've seen the eye of sunny blue,
And lips, like rubies, dipt in dew :
And locks, in sunny radiance wreathing,
And forms like alabaster, breathing:
And felt that beauty never stole
A lasting fetter on the soul ;
A lightning swift, and free as wind.
The mind alone can chain the mind.
It is not in the witchery
Of rosy lip or azure eye,
Nor in the deeper sacrifice
Of cheeks abash'd, and whisper'd sighs
Light as the summer meteor's glance.
It startles from the tempting trance;
Or won—as quickly lost as won,
Waves its bright pinion, and is gone.
Where then to find the spell that flings
The fetter on those wavering wings?
'Tis in the native truth of heart,
That scorns the thought of female art,
That, keenly thrill'd by joy or pain,
Disdains the thrill to hide or feign :
And anxious but one heart to move,
Toils not for triumph but for love.
On his wild plume this fetter twine,
The wanderer's thine, and ever thine!