Written in Illustration of a Tableau Vivant <br /> <br /> <br />Is she not lovely! Oh! when, long ago, <br />My own dead mother gazed upon my face, <br />As I stood blushing near in bridal snow, <br />I had not half her beauty and her grace. <br /> <br />Yet that fond mother praised, the world caressed, <br />And ONE adored me -- how shall HE who soon <br />Shall wear my gentle flower upon his breast, <br />Prize to its utmost worth the priceless boon? <br /> <br />Shall he not gird her, guard her, make her rich, <br />(Not as the world is rich, in outward show,) <br />With all the love and watchful kindness which <br />A wise and tender manhood may bestow? <br /> <br />Oh! I shall part from her with many tears, <br />My earthly treasure, pure and undefiled! <br />And not without a weight of anxious fears <br />For the new future of my darling child. <br /> <br />And yet -- for well I know that virgin heart -- <br />No wifely duty will she leave undone; <br />Nor will her love neglect that woman's art <br />Which courts and keeps a love already won. <br /> <br />In no light girlish levity she goes <br />Unto the altar where they wait her now, <br />But with a thoughtful, prayerful heart that knows <br />The solemn purport of a marriage vow. <br /> <br />And she will keep, with all her soul's deep truth, <br />The lightest pledge which binds her love and life; <br />And she will be -- no less in age than youth <br />My noble child will be -- a noble wife. <br /> <br />And he, her lover! husband! what of him? <br />Yes, he will shield, I think, my bud from blight! <br />Yet griefs will come -- enough! my eyes are dim <br />With tears I must not shed -- at least, to-night. <br /> <br />Bless thee, my daughter! -- Oh! she is so fair! -- <br />Heaven bend above thee with its starriest skies! <br />And make thee truly all thou dost appear <br />Unto a lover's and thy mother's eyes!<br /><br />Henry Timrod<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/stanzas-a-mother-gazes-upon-her-daughter-arrayed-for-an-approaching-bridal/
