Poems (Frances Elizabeth Browne)/Lines to ———
For works with similar titles, see Lines to ———.
LINES, TO ———,A BEAUTIFUL, BUT VAIN, YOUNG LADY.
Your request, my dear girl, is a delicate task;
Pray what would you wish me to say? let me ask.
Must I tell you your eyes are of heavenly blue?
That your face and your features are beautiful, too?
Must I tell you all this? Nay, more, must I say
These serve but your sweetness and sense to display?
No! a flatterer might tell you all this, but a friend,
Believe me, will ne'er to such meanness descend.
Pray what would you wish me to say? let me ask.
Must I tell you your eyes are of heavenly blue?
That your face and your features are beautiful, too?
Must I tell you all this? Nay, more, must I say
These serve but your sweetness and sense to display?
No! a flatterer might tell you all this, but a friend,
Believe me, will ne'er to such meanness descend.
A beautiful person, we constantly find,
Is not always adorned by a beautiful mind;
And though a fair face admiration excite,
The effect it produces is transient and slight;
Disappointed, we turn with contempt and disdain
From a form, though angelic, if heartless and vain;
But if mind and if heart correspond with the face,
To love and esteem admiration gives place;
'T is the mind which alone can illumine the whole;
Beauty attracts the sight, but sweetness wins the soul.
Is not always adorned by a beautiful mind;
And though a fair face admiration excite,
The effect it produces is transient and slight;
Disappointed, we turn with contempt and disdain
From a form, though angelic, if heartless and vain;
But if mind and if heart correspond with the face,
To love and esteem admiration gives place;
'T is the mind which alone can illumine the whole;
Beauty attracts the sight, but sweetness wins the soul.