The Casket
Addressed to a Lady
Written at Fourteen.
As Cupid was roving one morning, he found
A Casket emblazon’d in diamond and gold;
The gems of the ocean embrac’d it around,
And the handmaids of Venus had sculptured its mould.
“How transcendent must be the interior store
“Of so bright an exterior,” the mirth-lover cries,
As he hastens, in rapture, its depths to explore,
With joy in his dimples, and hope in his eyes.
But, I would ye had seen how he alter’d his air,
How he rag’d!—how to earth the gay bauble he cast,10
When the richness of splendour that promis’d so fair,
Was empty of aught—save the æther that past.
Thus the beaming of beauty may dazzle the glance,
Though void of the stores that beneath them should be;
But when the gay casket is open’d—the trance
Of hopefulness fades like the foam of the sea.
But, in thee, Queen of Loveliness, wond’ring we find,
Not merely the time-searing bloom of the skin,
But the grace of the form, and the wealth of the mind,
The Casket of Beauty, the treasure within.20