Though with an angel's tongue <br />I set on fire the congregations all, <br />'Tis but a brazen bell that I have rung, <br />And I to nothing fall; <br />My theme is but an idle air <br />If Rosabella is not there, <br /> <br />Though I in thunders rave, <br />And hurl the blaze of oratoric flowers, <br />Others I move, but fail myself to save <br />With my declaiming powers; <br />I sink, alas! I know not where, <br />If Rosabella is not there. <br /> <br />Though I point out the way, <br />And closely circumscribe the path to heaven, <br />And pour my melting prayer without delay, <br />And vow my sins forgiven, <br />I sink into the gloom despair <br />If Rosabella is not there, <br /> <br />Though I may mountains move, <br />And make the vallies vocal with my song, <br />I'm vain without a stream of mystic love, <br />For all my heart is wrong; <br />I've laid myself a cruel snare, <br />If Rosabella is not there. <br /> <br />From bibliothic stores, <br />I fly, proclaiming heaven from land to land, <br />Or cross the seas and reach their distant shores, <br />Mid Gothic groups to stand; <br />O, let me of myself beware, <br />If Rosabella is not there. <br /> <br />Our classic books must fail, <br />And with their flowery tongues to ashes burn, <br />And not one groat a mortal wit avail <br />Upon his last return; <br />Be this the creature's faithful prayer, <br />That Rosabella may be there. <br /> <br />This spotless maid was born <br />The babe of heaven, and cannot be defiled; <br />The soul is dead and in a state forlorn <br />On which she has not smiled; <br />Vain are the virile and the fair, <br />If Rosabella be not there. <br /> <br />When other pleasures tire, <br />And mortal glories fade to glow no more, <br />She with the wings of truth augments her fire, <br />And still prevails to soar; <br />All else must die, the good and wise, <br />But Rosabella never dies.<br /><br />George Moses Horton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rosabella-purity-of-heart/
