The curious eye may watch her lovely face,

Whereon such rare and roseate tinctures glow,

And cry, How fair the rose and lily show

Mid all the glories of a maiden grace!

If this sweet show, this bloom and tender glance,

Would so attract a stranger's unskilled eyes,

Until he sees the light of Paradise

Dawn in the garden of that countenance—

I, to whom love hath given finer powers,

See there the emblems of a flowering soul

That hath its root in other world than ours,

And which doth ever seek its native goal;

Meanwhile decks life with love and grace and flowers,

And in one beauteous garland binds the whole.