single life may have uttered what millions of completed lives have stammered over unintelligibly; this thought begets that agony of fondness that would entrust the brief perfection of young persons to stone or metal rather than leave it to fading flesh. Elroy Flecker, a young poet recently dead, rivals the beautiful lines quoted above with a similar invention:
"Had I the power
To Midas given of old
To touch a flower
And leave its petals gold,
I then might touch thy face,
Delightful boy,
And leave a metal grace
A graven joy.
Thus would I slay—
Ah, desperate device!
The vital day
That trembles in thine eyes,
And let the red lips close
Which sang so well
And drive away the rose
To leave a shell."
This vivid estimation of human beauty is proof of a deep well of poetic power.
"Star of my soul, thou gazest
Upon the starry skies;
I envy Heaven, that watches
Thy face with countless eyes."[1]
So Plato sang, and still, in spite of astronomy; the worth of this soul-thrilled comeliness can counterbalance the magnitude of stellar regions and remove all terror from the unclouded night. So great a power has human beauty when we are alone with ourselves; and yet few
- ↑ Translated by Kenneth Freeman: Schools of Hellas.
