III.

Some men I have beheld with wonderment,

Noble in form and feature, God's design,

In whom the thought must search, as in a mine,

For that live soul of theirs, by which they went

Thus walking on the earth. And I have bent

Frequent regard on women, who gave sign

That God willed Beauty, when He drew the line

That shaped each float and fold of Beauty's tent;

But the soul, drawing up in little space,

Thus left the form all staring, self-dismayed,

A vacant sign of what might be the grace

If mind swelled up, and filled the plan displayed:

Each curve and shade of thy pure form were Thine,

Thy very hair replete with the divine.

A Hidden Life and Other Poems · 第 81 / 144 题