I SHALL MAKE BEAUTY

By John Collings Squire

I shall make beauty out of many things:

Lights, colours, motions, sky and earth and sea,

The soft unbosoming of all the springs

Which that inscrutable hand allows to me,

Odours of flowers, sounds of smitten strings,

The voice of many a wind in many a tree,

Fields, rivers, moors, swift feet and floating wings,

Rocks, caves, and hills that stand and clouds that flee.

Men also and women, beautiful and dear,

Shall come and pass and leave a fragrant breath;

And my own heart, laughter and pain and fear,

The majesties of evil and of death;

But never, never shall my verses trace

The loveliness of your most lovely face.