Beauty, Elinor Wylie

Beauty Elinor Wylie

Say not of Beauty she is good, Or aught but beautiful, Or sleek to doves’ wings of the wood Her wild wings of a gull. Call her not wicked; that word’s touch Consumes her like a curse; But love her not too much, too much, For that is even worse. O, she is neither good nor bad, But innocent and wild! Enshrine her and she dies, who had The hard heart of a child.

Elinor Wylie was born in Somerville, New Jersey, on September 7, 1885. Her collections of poetry include Black Armour (George H. Doran Company, 1923) and Angels and Earthly Creatures (Alfred A. Knopf, 1929). She died on December 16, 1928. About This Poem “Beauty” was published in Nets to Catch the Wind(Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921).