Classic Poem

Great nature is a mirror that reflects
The mind within: all shapes of loveliness
Answer but faintly to the inward stress
Of that high sense of beauty that directs
Our wandering thoughts to pure and sweet effects;
And thus she dangles with a sweet caress
The tender flowers, fondlings that gently press
Against our busy pondering, that rejects
All gracious forms until grace thus reminds,
Only the sensual lust of greed and gain
Blossom uncultured in our hearts, exempt
Of beauty's image, that but seldom finds
A place where grosser musings flow amain
And where unlovely thoughts are free to tempt.