Maurine And Other Poems/Dust-sealed

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I know not wherefore, but mine eyes
  See bloom, where other eyes see blight.
They find a rainbow, a sunrise,
  Where others but discern deep night.

Men call me an enthusiast,
  And say I look through gilded haze:
Because where’er my gaze is cast,
  I see something that calls for praise.

I say, “Behold those lovely eyes—
  That tinted cheek of flower-like grace.”
They answer in amused surprise:
  “We thought it a common face.”

I say, “Was ever seen more fair?
  I seem to walk in Eden’s bowers.”
They answer, with a pitying air,
  “The weeds are choking out the flowers.”

I know not wherefore, but God lent
  A deeper vision to my sight.
On whatsoe’er my gaze is bent
  I catch the beauty Infinite;

That underlying, hidden half
  That all things hold of Deity.
So let the dull crowd sneer and laugh—
  Their eyes are blind, they cannot see.