T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Beauty
By Alfred Bryan (18711958)(From Pagan Love Lyrics, 1921) BEAUTY is not modest. Why should Beauty be? | |
But ugliness is moral after all. | |
Beauty and concealment have no affinity: | |
For Ugliness—convention wears a pall. | |
Beauty bares her loveliness for other eyes to see; | 5 |
And Truth, when naked only, is divine. | |
So you, dear heart, are modest in all your nudity | |
Save when observed by other eyes than mine. | |