Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915). Yale Book of American Verse. 1912.
William Allen Butler 1825–1902
William Allen Butler156 Incognita of Raphael
L
On the fair form, the quaint costume;
Yet, nameless still, she sits, unknown,
A lady in her youthful bloom.
Their blight upon her perfect lot, Whate’er her future or her past, In this bright moment matters not. There needs, nor memory of her name; Enough that Raphael’s colors blent To give her features deathless fame! The crown of beauty on her brow; Still lives its early radiance yet, As at the earliest, even now. In all the rapt Cecilia’s grace; Nor yet the holy, calm repose He painted on the Virgin’s face. There lurk within these earnest eyes The passions that have had their birth And grown beneath Italian skies. What hopes, and fears, and longings rest Where falls the folded veil, or gleams The golden necklace on her breast! May shade the secret soul within; What griefs from passion’s overflow, What shame that follows after sin! Are those pure eyes, those glances pure; And queenly is the state she keeps, In beauty’s lofty trust secure. Through all those grand and pictured halls, Nor felt the magic of her glance, As when a voice of music calls? Sweet day, in spring’s unclouded time, While on the glowing canvas lay The light of that delicious clime; On the fair brow, the peerless cheek; The lips, I fancied, almost breathed The blessings that they could not speak. Upon the picture their mild gaze, And dear the voice that gave consent To all the utterance of my praise. O happy memories shrined apart; The rapture that the painter wrought, The kindred rapture of the heart!