Poems of Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L. E. L.) in Finden’s Gallery of the Graces (1834)/Erinna
Erinna
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ERINNA.
BY L. E. L.
Was she of spirit race, or was she one
Of Earth's least earthly daughters, one to whom
A gift of soul and loveliness is given,
Only to make men wretched?
There is an antique gem, on which her brow
Retains its graven beauty even now.
Her hair is braided, but one curl behind
Floats as enamour'd of the summer wind;
The rest is simple. Is she not too fair
Even to think of maiden's sweetest care?
The mouth and brow are contrasts. One so fraught
With pride, the melancholy pride of thought
Conscious of power, and yet forced to know
How little way such power as that can go;
Regretting, while too proud of the fine mind,
Which raises but to part it from its kind:
But the sweet mouth had nothing of all this;
It was a mouth the rose had leaned to kiss,
For her young sister, telling, now though mute,
How soft an echo it was to the lute.
The one spoke genius, in its high revealing;
The other smiled a woman's gentle feeling.
It was a lovely face: the Greek outline
Flowing, yet delicate and feminine;
The glorious lightning of the kindled eye,
Raised, as it communed with its native sky,
A lovely face, the spirit's fitting shrine;
The one almost, the other quite, divine.