WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL?

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BY AUGUSTA.

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Flowers are beautiful—every hue

Colors their petals, and pearly dew,

The nectar the fairies love to sup,

Sparkles brightly in each tiny cup,

While the dark leaves of the ivy shine,

And its clustering tendrils closely twine

Round the old oak, and the sapling young,

And when it has lightly round them clung,

It laughs, and shouts, and it calls aloud,

Have I not now a right to be proud?

I’ve mastered the lordly forest-tree,

I’m King of the woods, come see, come see.

Night’s gems are beauteous, right rare are they,

Gloriously bright is each gentle ray,

Flashing and twinkling up so high,

Like diamonds set in the deep blue sky;

Who is there but loves night’s gentle queen,

Gorgeously robed in her silver sheen?

Shedding her pale, pure brightness round,

O’er hill and valley, and tree and ground;

Gilding the waters as on they glide

In their conscious beauty, joy and pride;

Or sending a quiet ray to rove,

And wake the shade of the deep-green grove.

The Sun is beautiful—“God of day,”

He sends o’er the earth a lordly ray,

He shames the sweet pensive Orb of night

By his radiant beams so fiercely bright.

Wind is beautiful—not to the eye—

You cannot see it—but hear it sigh

Lowly and sweet in a gentle breeze,

Rustling the tops of the lofty trees,

Sending the yellow leaves to the ground,

Playfully whirling them round and round,

Filling the sails with their fill of air,

Then dancing off on some freak more rare;

Scat’ring the snow and the blinding hail,

Shrieking aloud in the wintry gale,

Rudely driving the pattering rain

’Gainst the lonely cottage’s humble pane,

Uprooting the aged forest-tree,

Then whistling loud right merrily;

Owning no king save a mighty One!

Following His dictates, and His alone.

Water is beautiful—sounding clear,

Like distant music upon the ear,

Bubbling light, sparkling bright, bounding still

With a joyous laugh adown the hill,

Clapping its hands with a noisy glee,

Shouting I’m bound for the sea, the sea!

I’ll bear my spoils to the Ocean’s tide—

Hurrah! hurrah! the earth’s my loved bride;

I came through a lovely grassy glade,

And caught the dew-drops from every blade;

I stopped awhile in a shady spring

Hearing the summer-birds sweetly sing,

And I just ’scaped being pris’ner caught,

A maiden to fill her pail there sought;

But I laughed aloud with a careless ring,

As off I rolled from the crystal spring.

Small though I seem, I’m part of the tide

That’s to dash against a tall ship’s side,

Bearing silken goods far o’er the sea,

Bringing back ingots of gold for me—

For me to seize and to bury deep

Where thousands of pearls and diamonds sleep

Scorn me! who dares? I tell thee now,

I’m monarch, and mine is the lordly brow.

Oh! all is beautiful, all is fair—

High Heaven, and earth, and sea, and air,

The sun, the moon, and the stars on high,

The clouds, the waters, and sands that lie

Far away down where the mermaids roam

And the coral insects build their home.