“
It is not Beauty I demand,Nor mermaid's yellow pride of hair.
— George Darley
It is not Beauty I demand,Nor mermaid's yellow pride of hair.
Give me, instead of beauty's bust,Yet never linked with error find.
Half-buried to her flaming breastCrumble at length to hoary dust!
O fast her amber blood doth flowIn silent rivulets to the sea!
Sweet in her green dell the flower of beauty slumbers,Breathed to my sad lute 'mid the lonely air.
Come then, my bird! For the peace thou ever bearest,Bleeds with its death-wound, its wound of love for thee!
