Page:A Treasury of South African Poetry.djvu/241

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"KAPPA."
215

IDEAL BEAUTY.

Paint me a picture where the golden hair,
Like sunlight, falls around the chiselled face
Of Grecian imaging;—limn me the grace
Of spiritual beauty, jewel rare,
In features human yet divinely fair:
Let, through the dark-blue splendour of the eye,
Ethereal Hope shine star-like with chaste Love,
And on the brow a wisdom from above,
And on the lip a happy secret lie,
Fraught with the spirit's sweetest sorcery;
Suffuse her face with Music, and the charm—
The animated glow of lofty Thought;
Let Cynthia's mien, with stately mildness fraught
And queenly grace, adorn th' ideal form;
And let it stand on some green isle of bliss,
Where seraphs stoop to woo her witching kiss.

"Kappa."