| SHE walks in beauty, like the night | |
| Of cloudless climes and starry skies; | |
| And all that ‘s best of dark and bright | |
| Meet in her aspect and her eyes: | |
| Thus mellow’d to that tender light | 5 |
| Which heaven to gaudy day denies. | |
| One shade the more, one ray the less, | |
| Had half impair’d the nameless grace | |
| Which waves in every raven tress, | |
| Or softly lightens o’er her face; | 10 |
| Where thoughts serenely sweet express | |
| How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. | |
| And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, | |
| So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, | |
| The smiles that win, the tints that glow, | 15 |
| But tell of days in goodness spent, | |
| A mind at peace with all below, | |
A heart whose love is innocent!
|
— Lord Byron
post-scriptum: I had to memorize this at some point in my elementary education . . .you know for one of the ACSI speech competitions or whatever . . . those first lines have always stuck with me.
i_n_f_j
I love Sleeping Beauty. I love Chopin piano pieces. I love that poem.
marjoriefair
i love you!
missraa
that is a beautiful poem; i’ve never heard it before. usually i don’t like the poetry you read for school, but that one, *sigh* you did speech competitions too? mine was juliet’s speech from the balcony. i had the neatest dress for it, and they called me juliet for years.