Beauty And Beauty

Hymn To Intellectual Beauty 

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The awful shadow of some unseen Power

Floats through unseen among us, -- visiting

This various world with as inconstant wing

As summer winds that creep from flower to flower, --

Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower,

It visits with inconstant glance

Each human heart and countenance;

Like hues and harmonies of evening, --

Like clouds in starlight widely spread, --

Like memory of music fled, --

Like aught that for its grace may be

Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery.

Spirit of Beauty, that dost consecrate

With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon

Of human thought or form, -- where art thou gone?

Why dost thou pass away and leave our state,

This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate?

Ask why the sunlight not for ever

Weaves rainbows o'er yon mountain-river,

Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown,

Why fear and dream and death and birth

Cast on the daylight of this earth

Such gloom, -- why man has such a scope

For love and hate, despondency and hope?

No voice from some sublimer world hath ever

To sage or poet these responses given --

Therefore the names of Demon, Ghost, and Heaven,

Remain the records of their vain endeavour,

Frail spells -- whose uttered charm might not avail to sever,

From all we hear and all we see,

Doubt, chance, and mutability.

Thy light alone -- like mist oe'er the mountains driven,

Or music by the night-wind sent

Through strings of some still instrument,

Or moonlight on a midnight stream,

Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream.

Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart

And come, for some uncertain moments lent.

Man were immortal, and omnipotent,

Didst thou, unknown and awful as thou art,

Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart.

Thou messgenger of sympathies,

That wax and wane in lovers' eyes --

Thou -- that to human thought art nourishment,

Like darkness to a dying flame!

Depart not as thy shadow came,

Depart not -- lest the grave should be,

Like life and fear, a dark reality.

While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped

Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,

And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing

Hopes of high talk with the departed dead.

I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed;

I was not heard -- I saw them not --

When musing deeply on the lot

Of life, at that sweet time when winds are wooing

All vital things that wake to bring

News of birds and blossoming, --

Sudden, thy shadow fell on me;

I shrieked, and clasped my hands in ecstasy!

I vowed that I would dedicate my powers

To thee and thine -- have I not kept the vow?

With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now

I call the phantoms of a thousand hours

Each from his voiceless grave: they have in visioned bowers

Of studious zeal or love's delight

Outwatched with me the envious night --

They know that never joy illumed my brow

Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free

This world from its dark slavery,

That thou - O awful Loveliness,

Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express.

The day becomes more solemn and serene

When noon is past -- there is a harmony

In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,

Which through the summer is not heard or seen,

As if it could not be, as if it had not been!

Thus let thy power, which like the truth

Of nature on my passive youth

Descended, to my onward life supply

Its calm -- to one who worships thee,

And every form containing thee,

Whom, Spirit fair, thy spells did bind

To fear himself, and love all human kind. 

Beauty And Beauty

by Rupert Brooke

When Beauty and Beauty meet

All naked, fair to fair,

The earth is crying-sweet,

And scattering-bright the air,

Eddying, dizzying, closing round,

With soft and drunken laughter;

Veiling all that may befall

After -- after --

Where Beauty and Beauty met,

Earth's still a-tremble there,

And winds are scented yet,

And memory-soft the air,

Bosoming, folding glints of light,

And shreds of shadowy laughter;

Not the tears that fill the years

After -- after -- 

The Beauty Of Death Xiv

 by Khalil Gibran

Part One - The Calling

Let me sleep, for my soul is intoxicated with love and 

Let me rest, for my spirit has had its bounty of days and nights; 

Light the candles and burn the incense around my bed, and 

Scatter leaves of jasmine and roses over my body; 

Embalm my hair with frankincense and sprinkle my feet with perfume, 

And read what the hand of Death has written on my forehead. 

Let me rest in the arms of Slumber, for my open eyes are tired; 

Let the silver-stringed lyre quiver and soothe my spirit; 

Weave from the harp and lute a veil around my withering heart. 

Sing of the past as you behold the dawn of hope in my eyes, for 

It's magic meaning is a soft bed upon which my heart rests. 

Dry your tears, my friends, and raise your heads as the flowers 

Raise their crowns to greet the dawn. 

Look at the bride of Death standing like a column of light 

Between my bed and the infinite; 

Hold your breath and listen with me to the beckoning rustle of 

Her white wings. 

Come close and bid me farewell; touch my eyes with smiling lips. 

Let the children grasp my hands with soft and rosy fingers; 

Let the ages place their veined hands upon my head and bless me; 

Let the virgins come close and see the shadow of God in my eyes, 

And hear the echo of His will racing with my breath. 

Part Two - The Ascending

I have passed a mountain peak and my soul is soaring in the 

Firmament of complete and unbound freedom; 

I am far, far away, my companions, and the clouds are 

Hiding the hills from my eyes. 

The valleys are becoming flooded with an ocean of silence, and the 

Hands of oblivion are engulfing the roads and the houses; 

The prairies and fields are disappearing behind a white specter 

That looks like the spring cloud, yellow as the candlelight 

And red as the twilight. 

The songs of the waves and the hymns of the streams 

Are scattered, and the voices of the throngs reduced to silence; 

And I can hear naught but the music of Eternity 

In exact harmony with the spirit's desires. 

I am cloaked in full whiteness; 

I am in comfort; I am in peace. 

Part Three - The Remains

Unwrap me from this white linen shroud and clothe me 

With leaves of jasmine and lilies; 

Take my body from the ivory casket and let it rest 

Upon pillows of orange blossoms. 

Lament me not, but sing songs of youth and joy; 

Shed not tears upon me, but sing of harvest and the winepress; 

Utter no sigh of agony, but draw upon my face with your 

Finger the symbol of Love and Joy. 

Disturb not the air's tranquility with chanting and requiems, 

But let your hearts sing with me the song of Eternal Life; 

Mourn me not with apparel of black, 

But dress in color and rejoice with me; 

Talk not of my departure with sighs in your hearts; close 

Your eyes and you will see me with you forevermore. 

Place me upon clusters of leaves and 

Carry my upon your friendly shoulders and 

Walk slowly to the deserted forest. 

Take me not to the crowded burying ground lest my slumber 

Be disrupted by the rattling of bones and skulls. 

Carry me to the cypress woods and dig my grave where violets 

And poppies grow not in the other's shadow; 

Let my grave be deep so that the flood will not 

Carry my bones to the open valley; 

Let my grace be wide, so that the twilight shadows 

Will come and sit by me. 

Take from me all earthly raiment and place me deep in my 

Mother Earth; and place me with care upon my mother's breast. 

Cover me with soft earth, and let each handful be mixed 

With seeds of jasmine, lilies and myrtle; and when they 

Grow above me, and thrive on my body's element they will 

Breathe the fragrance of my heart into space; 

And reveal even to the sun the secret of my peace; 

And sail with the breeze and comfort the wayfarer. 

Leave me then, friends - leave me and depart on mute feet, 

As the silence walks in the deserted valley; 

Leave me to God and disperse yourselves slowly, as the almond 

And apple blossoms disperse under the vibration of Nisan's breeze. 

Go back to the joy of your dwellings and you will find there 

That which Death cannot remove from you and me. 

Leave with place, for what you see here is far away in meaning 

From the earthly world. Leave me.