The beautiful, the fair, the elegant, <br />Is that which pleases us, says Kant, <br />Without a thought of interest or advantage. <br /> <br />I used to watch men when they spoke of beauty <br />And measure their enthusiasm. One <br />An old man, seeing a ( ) setting sun, <br />Praised it ( ) a certain sense of duty <br />To the calm evening and his time of life. <br />I know another man that never says a Beauty <br />But of a horse; ( ) <br /> <br />Men seldom speak of beauty, beauty as such, <br />Not even lovers think about it much. <br />Women of course consider it for hours <br />In mirrors; ( ) <br /> <br />A shrapnel ball - <br />Just where the wet skin glistened when he swam - <br />Like a fully-opened sea-anemone. <br />We both said 'What a beauty! What a beauty, lad' <br />I knew that in that flower he saw a hope <br />Of living on, and seeing again the roses of his home. <br />Beauty is that which pleases and delights, <br />Not bringing personal advantage - Kant. <br />But later on I heard <br />A canker worked into that crimson flower <br />And that he sank with it <br />And laid it with the anemones off Dover.<br /><br />Wilfred Owen<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/beauty-9/
