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Home  »  Complete Poetical Works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  »  The Four Princesses at Wilna

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893.

A Book of Sonnets

The Four Princesses at Wilna

A Photograph

SWEET faces, that from pictured casements lean

As from a castle window, looking down

On some gay pageant passing through a town,

Yourselves the fairest figures in the scene;

With what a gentle grace, with what serene

Unconsciousness ye wear the triple crown

Of youth and beauty and the fair renown

Of a great name, that ne’er hath tarnished been!

From your soft eyes, so innocent and sweet,

Four spirits, sweet and innocent as they,

Gaze on the world below, the sky above;

Hark! there is some one singing in the street;

“Faith, Hope, and Love! these three, he seems to say;

“These three; and greatest of the three is Love.”