A VINDICATION

In you perfection has its place

Among the treasures of your worth

Where, smiling, you alone could trace

Exquisite thoughts back to their birth,

And cast a glance on mirrored face

Reflecting beauty, joy, and mirth.

You spoke of places far away

Where temples "range in lunacy",

And though 'twould be unwise to say

That you had been their ecstasy,

That spirits spread along the way

Had praised your feet's supremacy,

I can't help feeling that your grace

Improves each building where you tread,

And that, if beauty shows its face

When fastened to your lovely head,

The only sense these lines can trace

Is one that leads to love instead.