BLACK beauty, which, above that common light, Whose power can no colours here renew But those which darkness can again subdue, Dost still remain unvari'd to the sight, And like an object equal to the view, Art neither chang'd with day, nor hid with night; When all these colours which the world call bright, And which old poetry doth so pursue, Are with the night so perished and gone That of their being there remains no mark, Thou still abidest so entirely one, That we may know thy blackness is a spark Of light inaccessible, and alone Our darkness which can make us think it dark. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CLARE'S DRAGOONS by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS L'ENVOI: THE RETURN OF THE SIRE DE NESLE, A.D. 16 - by HERMAN MELVILLE BURIAL by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY SNAKES, MONGOOSES, SNAKE-CHARMERS, AND THE LIKE by MARIANNE MOORE SONNET: 64 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE LAST CAESAR, 1851-1870 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |