- Not for thy outward charms of form and face,
- Careful to leave no feature unexpressed,
As if for beauty's sake we loved thee best,
- We bring thee praise; nor for thy pride of race,
Nor for thy wealth that waxeth apace,
- Nor will we vaunt, with low and swinish zest,
The milky richness of thy mother-breast,
- Like unweaned babes that know no higher grace.
Shall we be lured by these things? Are we not
- A something more than mouth and eyes and ears,
To eat and look and listen life away?
- More than these skin-deep beauties must thou be
- To win and keep our homage through the years;
Yea, fair in more transcendant wise than they.
- And fair thou art, as we would have thee be,
- Fair even in this more transcendant wise;
The light of high communings on thee lies;
- Thy touch the bond abide not, but are free,
Thy look is gracious, holy; none but thee,
- Smiled on howe'er she be by happy skies,
Hath power to still the hunger of our eyes,
- Unsated by the mountains and the sea,
For thou art Freedom's daughter, and thy birth
- Was through the pain of Righteousness's wars,
Thy cradle song, the battle's roar and din.
- Therefore thy beauty hath the greater worth
- Of noble thoughts; so art thee fair within,
And claimest thine the pathway of the stars.
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