Beyond the Hills of Dream

Chapter 30: Her Look

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About This Book

A sequence of lyrical poems moves between meditations on nature and elegy, intimate love lyrics, classical and historical sketches, and reflections on public life. Seasonal and landscape imagery—shorelines, woods, hills, and morning light—frames explorations of loss, memory, longing, and the consolations of fancy; several elegies mourn vanished friends or past ages while narrative pieces recall antiquity and voyages. The voice shifts from private yearning and pastoral observation to occasional public-address poems that honor places and figures, blending mythic allusion with local scenery and contemplative religious tones. The collection combines late‑Victorian musicality with restrained moral and reflective temper.

Her Look

Time may set his fingers there,
Fix the smiles that curve about
Her winsome mouth, and touch her hair,
Put the curves of youth to rout;
But the “something” God put there,
That which drew me to her first,
Not the imps of pain and care,
Not all sorrow’s fiends accurst,
Can kill the look that God put there.

Something beautiful and rare,
Nothing common can destroy;
Not all the leaden load of care,
Not all the dross of earth’s alloy;
Better than all fame or gold,
True as only God’s own truth,
It is something all hearts hold
Who have loved once in their youth.

That sweet look her face doth hold
Thus will ever be to me;
Joy may all her pinions fold,
Care may come and misery;
Through the days of murk and shine,
Though the roads be foul or fair,
I will see through love’s glad eyne
That sweet look that God put there.