Non copre abito vil la nobil luce,
E quanto è in lei d'altero e di gentile;
E fuor la maesta regia traluce
Per gli atti ancor de l'esercizio umile.
Canto VII, stanza 18 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
“Her soul's light shines through,
But her soul cannot be seen.”
Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) American poet, editor, literary critic, soldier
Main Street and Other Poems (1917), A Blue Valentine
Context: Her soul's light shines through,
But her soul cannot be seen.
It is something elusive, whimsical, tender, wanton, infantile, wise
And noble.
“A lovely lady, garmented in light
From her own beauty.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet
The Witch of Atlas http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4696 (1820), st. 5
“Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike,
And, like the sun, they shine on all alike.”
Alexander Pope The Rape of the Lock
Canto II, line 13.
The Rape of the Lock (1712, revised 1714 and 1717)
Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) American poet, editor, literary critic, soldier
Main Street and Other Poems (1917), A Blue Valentine
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
1840s, Letter to William Lloyd Garrison (1846)
Context: In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky — her grand old woods — her fertile fields — her beautiful rivers — her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slaveholding, robbery and wrong, — when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing.
Oliver Goldsmith book The Vicar of Wakefield
Source: The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Ch. 29, Song, st. 2.
Lewis Carroll Three Sunsets and Other Poems
Stolen Waters (1862), st. 1
Three Sunsets and Other Poems (1898)
