AH, Lucasta, why so bright, Spread with early streaked light! If still veiled from our sight, What is't but eternal night? Ah, Lucasta, why so chaste! With that vigour, ripeness grac'd! Not to be by man embrac'd Makes that royal coin embas'd, And this golden orchard waste. Ah, Lucasta, why so great That thy crammed coffers sweat! Yet not owner of a seat May shelter you from Nature's heat, And your earthly joys complete. Ah, Lucasta, why so good, Blest with an unstained flood Flowing both through soul and blood! If it be not understood, 'Tis a diamond in mud. Lucasta, stay! why dost thou fly? Thou art not bright, but to the eye, Nor chaste, but in the marriage-tie, Nor great, but in this treasury, Nor good, but in that sanctity. Harder than the orient stone, Like an apparition, Or as a pale shadow gone, Dumb and deaf she hence is flown. Then receive this equal doom: Virgins strow no tear or bloom, No one dig the Parian womb; Raise her marble heart i' th' room, And 'tis both her corse and tomb. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AD LESBIAM by GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS THE RUSTIC LAD'S LAMENT IN THE TOWN by DAVID MACBETH MOIR EXTEMPORE EFFUSION UPON THE DEATH OF JAMES HOGG by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ACT 5 (MIDNIGHT) by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO THE SHAH (2) by AWHAD AD-DIN 'ALI IBN VAHID MUHAMMAD KHAVARANI IN THE WHITE LAND by KONSTANTIN DMITRIYEVICH BALMONT THE INNOCENT THIEF by VINCENT BOURNE |