I
do not think my sister ...
... So unprincipled in
Virtue’s book
And the sweet peace that goodness
bosoms ever,
As that single want of light
and noise
Could stir the constant mood
of her calm thoughts,
And put them into misbecoming
plight.
Virtue could see to do what
Virtue would
By her own radiant light,
though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk.
And Wisdom’s self
Oft seeks to sweet retired
solitude:
Where, with her best nurse,
Contemplation,
She plumes her feathers, and
lets grow her wings.
That in the various bustle
of resort
Were all too ruffled, and
sometimes impair’d.
Comus.
LORD BYRON.
Around
her shone
The nameless charms unmark’d
by her alone:
The light of love, the purity
of grace,
The mind, the music breathing
from her face,
The heart whose softness harmonized
the whole—
And, oh! that eye was in itself
a soul!
The Bride of Abydos, Canto 1.
Maidens, like moths, are ever
caught by glare,
And Mammon wins his way where
seraphs might despair.
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 1.
She
was a form of life and light,
That, seen, became a part
of sight;
And rose wher’er I turned
mine eye,
The morning-star of memory!
The Giaour.
You
know, or ought to know, enough of women,
Since you have studied, them
so steadily,
That what they ask in aught
that touches on
The heart, is dearer to their
feelings or
Their fancy than the whole
external world.
Sardanapalus, A. 4.
Oh!
too convincing—dangerously dear—
In woman’s eye the unanswerable
tear!
That weapon of her weakness
she can wield
To save, subdue—at
once her spear and shield.
Corsair, Canto 2.
Who hath not proved how feebly
words essay
To fix one spark of beauty’s
heavenly ray?
Who doth not feel, until his
failing sight
Faints into dimness with its
own delight,
His changing cheek, his sinking
heart confess
The might—the majesty
of loveliness?
Bride of Abydos, Canto 1.
So bright the tear in beauty’s
eye,
Love half regrets to kiss
it dry;
So sweet the blush of bashfulness,
Even pity scarce can wish
it less!
The Bride of Abydos, Canto 1.
Her glossy hair was cluster’d
o’er a brow
Bright with intelligence,
and fair and smooth;
Her eyebrow’s shape
was like the aerial bow
Her cheek all purple with
the beam of youth
Mounting, at times to a transparent
glow,
As if her veins ran lightning.
Don Juan, Canto 1.