LINES FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF A HARVARD UNDERGRADUATE
The bloom that lies on Fanny’s cheek
Is all my Latin, all my Greek;
The only sciences I know
Are frowns that gloom and smiles that glow;
Siberia and Italy
Lie in her sweet geography;
No scolarship have I but such
As teaches me to love her much.
Why should I strive to read the skies,
Who know the midnight of her eyes?
Why should I go so very far
To learn what heavenly bodies are!
Not Berenice’s starry hair
With Fanny’s tresses can compare;
Not Venus on a cloudless night,
Enslaving Science with her light,
Ever reveals so much as when
She stares and droops her lids again.
If Nature’s secrets are forbidden
To mortals, she may keep them hidden.
(Thomas Bailey Aldrich)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, Light Poems, Secrets PoemsBased on Keywords: sciences, siberia, enslaving, berenice, undergraduate