THE LOVER’S CREED
DEDICATED TO E. M., BALLYMENA

Yesternight, when the twilight was lying
In mistiness over the earth,
The sun in the red west was dying,
To gladden the world with his birth,
I lay on the hill-side supinely,
To rapt meditation a prey
If beauty were formed so divinely,
To fade as the light of the day.

A voice on the soft zephyr stealing,
Like a ray of the sun in his strength,
To the hope in my bosom appealing,
Thus answered in love-notes at length;
“Know beauty is given to render
An earnest of glory before,
And dies to awaken in splendour,
And shine as a sun evermore!

And goodness is beauty, disclaiming
The exquisite form and the grace;
And pulses immortal inflaming
Will brighten the commonest face.
So heed not the frown of the zealot,
Nor blush that you bow with the rest,
If virtue alone can compel it,
With beauty ‘tis doubly blest!”

Then blame not the heart, O my darling!
That throbs for its mistress alway;
A homage so high and so sterling
May increase, but never decay!
Nor call it a meaner ambition
That longeth for no paradise
Than to bask in the glances elysian
Enthroned in thy lustrious eyes!

EL ZOGOYBI Cullybackey 22nd July 1865