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 sayThese 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 disdainFrom 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.