BEAUTY'S METEMPSYCHOSIS

That beauty such as thine Can die indeed, Were ordinance too wantonly malign: No wit may reconcile so cold a creed With beauty such as thine.

From wave and star and flower Some effluence rare Was lent thee, a divine but transient dower: Thou yield'st it back from eyes and lips and hair To wave and star and flower.

Shouldst thou to-morrow die, Thou still shalt be Found in the rose and met in all the sky: And from the ocean's heart shalt sing to me, Shouldst thou to-morrow die.