A fond wife, nested in a happy home
Which Nature, Art, and Love make fair and bright,
Herself of its delights the chief delight,
To whose weird bidding cunning spirits come
To do her will, — my heart beholds in her
Beauty's sweet priestess and interpreter;
Yet not the less a woman warm and true,
And faithful in all household works and ways:
So to my verse I give her name and praise,
And link that name with blessings ever new.
What though between her paradise and me
May stretch the spaces of a continent!
Still, over all, by love inspired and sent,
Shall spring to her my Benedicite.
