Landon in The Literary Gazette 1823/On the Picture of a Young Girl
Literary Gazette, 17th May 1823, Page 316
ORIGINAL POETRY.
ON THE PICTURE OF A YOUNG GIRL.
A beautiful and laughing thing,
Just in her first apparelling
Of girlish loveliness: blue eyes,
Such blue as in the violet dwells,
And rose-bud lips of sweets, such sweets
The bee hoards in his fragrant cells.
'Tis not a blush upon her cheek—
On blushes but of love can speak;
That brow is all too free from care
For Love to be a dweller there.
Alas, that Love should ever fling
One shadow from his radiant wing!
But that fair cheek knows not a cloud,
And health and hope are in its dyes.
She has been over hill and dale,
Chasing the summer butterflies.
Yet there is malice in her smile,
As if she felt her woman's power,
And had a gift of prophecy,
To look upon that coming hour
When, feared by some, yet loved by all,
Young Beauty holds her festival. L. E. L.