Dear Maid, this truth believe,

Minds that have nothing to confer

Find little to perceive.

Be pleased that nature made thee fit

To feed my heart’s devotion, 10

By laws to which all Forms submit

In sky, air, earth, and ocean.

“WHAT HEAVENLY SMILES! O LADY MINE”

Composed 1845.—Published 1845

One of the “Poems founded on the Affections.”—Ed.