A Health

I fill this cup to one made up   Of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex   The seeming paragon; To whom the better elements   And kindly stars have given A form so fair, that, like the air,   ’T is less of earth than heaven. Her every tone is music’s own,   Like those of morning birds, And something more than melody   Dwells ever in her words; The coinage of her heart are they,   And from her lips each flows As one may see the burdened bee   Forth issue from the rose. Affections are as thoughts to her,   The measures of her hours; Her feelings have the fragrancy,   The freshness of young flowers; And lovely passions, changing oft,   So fill her, she appears The image of themselves by turns,—   The idol of past years! Of her bright face one glance will trace   A picture on the brain, And of her voice in echoing hearts   A sound must long remain; But memory, such as mine of her,   So very much endears, When death is nigh my latest sigh   Will not be life’s, but hers. I fill this cup to one made up   Of loveliness alone, A woman, of her gentle sex   The seeming paragon— Her health! and would on earth there stood   Some more of such a frame, That life might be all poetry,   And weariness a name.