Text: Willis (?), Notice of Caroline Gilman, Oracles from the Poets, Evening Mirror (New York), November 21, 1844, vol. 1, no. 40, p. 1, col. 6 - p. 2, col. 1

WHAT IS THE PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF HIM WHO LOVES YOU?

1. In his bold Visage middle age

Has slightly press’d its signet sage,

Yet has not quench’d the open truth

And fiery vehemence of youth.

SCOTT — Lady of the Lake.

 

2. He is young

And eminently beautiful, and life

Mantles in eloquent fulness on his lip.

And sparkles in his glance, and in his mien

There is a gracious pride that every eye

Follows with benisons.

WILLIS.

 

3. He hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard.

Merry Wives of Windsor.

 

 

4. The high-born eye,

That checks low mirth, but lacks not courtesy.

BYRON — Corsair.

 

5. Locks jet black, and clustering round a face

Open as day, and full of manly daring.

ROGERS — Italy.

 

6. His face is keen as is the wind

That cuts along the hawthorn fence,

A motley air

Of courage and of impudence.

WORDSWORTH.

 

7. Oh what a deal of scorn looks beautiful

In the contempt and anger of his lip!

Twelfth Night.

 

8. A goodly person, and can manage fairs

His stubborn steed,

Who under him doth trample in the air,

And chafe, that any on his back should sit.

SPENSER.

 

9. His waggish face, that speaks a soul jocose.

Seems t’have been cast i’ the mould of fun and glee;

And on the bridge of his well-arched nose.

Sits laughter plumed, and white-wing’d jollity.

TENNENT — Ansler Fair.

 

10. The glow of temperance o’er his cheek is spread,

Where the soft down half veils the chasten’d red.

CRABBE.

 

11. Readable as open book;

And much of easy dignity there lies

In the frank lifting of his cordial eyes.

LEIGH HUNT — Rimini.

 

12. Underneath that face, like summer ocean's,

Its lip as moveless, and its cheek as clear,

Slumbers a whirlwind of the heart's emotions,

Love, hatred, pride, hope, sorrow — all save fear.

HALLECK.

 

13. Singing he is, or fluting all the day;

He is as fresh as is the month of May.

He can songs make, and well indite,

Jouste, and eke dance, and well portray and write;

Courteous he is, lowly and serviceable,

And carveth for his father at the table.

CHAUCER.

 

14. Does he not hold up his head, as it were, and strut in his gait?

Merry Wives of Windsor.

 

15. Sober he seems, and very sagely sad,

And to the ground his eyes are lowly bent.

Simple in show.

SPENSER — Fairy Queen.

 

16. He is the deuce among the girls,

A thing of foppery and ton, of whiskers and of curls.

ALBERT PIKE.

 

17. A dainty gentleman,

His sleepy eyes half closed, and countenance

To no expression stronger than may suit

A simper, capable of being turn’d.

SOUTHEY.

 

18. Contempt contracts his face, a smile is on his dark-brown cheek, his red eye rolls half concealed beneath his shaggy brows.

OSSIAN.

 

19. Downcast, or shooting glances far,

How beautiful his eyes,

That blend the nature of the star

With that of summer skies!

WORDSWORTH.

 

20. Eyebrows bent like Cupid's bow,

Front an ample field of snow,

Even nose, and cheek withal

Smooth as is the billiard-ball;

Chin as woolly as the peach.

And his lip doth kissing teach,

Till he cherish too much beard

And make Love and you afear’d.

BEN JONSON.

 

21. A fair and meaning face, an eye of fire.

That checks the bold and makes the free “retire.

CRABBE.

 

22. He has all the graces that render a man's society dear to ladies.

MASSINGER.

 

23. A beard that would make a razor shake,

Unless its nerves were strong!

ALBERT PIKE.

 

24. He hath but a little beard, but time will send more if the man will be thankful.

As You Like It.

 

25. A fresh young Squire,

A lover, and a lusty bachelor;

With locks curl’d as they were laid in press:

Of twenty years of age he is, I guess.

CHAUCER.

 

26. His form is middle size,

Shaped in proportion fair;

And hazel is his eagle eye,

And auburn of the deepest dye

His short curl’d beard and hair.

SCOTT.

 

27. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes.

Coriolanus.

 

28. A kind true heart, a spirit high,

I That cannot fear, and will not bow,

Are written in his manly eye,

And on his manly brow.

HALLECK.

 

29. He has more goodness in his little finger, than you have in your whole body;

Indeed he is a personable man, and not a spindle-shanked hoddy-doddy.

SWIFT.

 

30. A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,

Framed in the prodigality of nature,

Young, valiant, wise.

The spacious earth cannot afford again.

Richard III.

 

31. A handsome gallant, and a beau of spirit,

Who can go down the dance so well as he?

TENNENT — Anster Fair.

 

32. A phantom, fashionably thin,

With limb of lath, and bearded chin.

SCOTT — Bridal of Triermain.

 

33. There is a fair behavior in him.

And though that nature with a beauteous wall

Doth oft close in pollution, yet of him

I well believe, he has a mind that suits

With this his fair and outward character.

Two Gentlemen of Verona.

 

34. Like a crane, his neck is long and fine,

With which he svvalloweth up excessive feast.

SPENSER.

 

35. Oh thy love has an eye

Like a star in the sky,

And breath like the sweets from the hawthorn tree;

And his heart is a treasure.

Whose worth is past measure,

And yet he hath given all — all to thee.

BARRY CORNWALL.

 

36. His form, his face, his noble mien,

The sweetness of his touching tone,

His feeling heart so simply shown,

Such gifts of mind, such gentle grace,

Proclaim him of no common race.

SOTHEBY.

 

37. A brow of beautiful yet earnest thought,

A form of manly grace.

MRS. SIGOURNEY. [page 3:]

 

38. He's handsome, valiant, young,

And looks as he were laid for nature's best,

To catch weak women's eves.

DRYDEN — All for Love.

 

39. In that fair stand, his forehead, Love still bends

His double bow, and round his arrows sends;

In that tall grove, his hair, those globy rings

He flying curls, and crispeth with his wings.

BEN JONSON.

 

40. He's fat, and scant o’ breath.

Hamlet.

 

41. Lordly look’d and lordly limb’d is he, —

A frame of iron, a right arm long and stark,

A rough, loud voice, a visage somedale dark,

A heart which soars as dangers soar, and ne’er

Sinks save in peace.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM.

 

42. Tall is his frame, his forehead high,

Still and mysterious is his eye;

His look is like a wintry day

When storms and winds have sunk away.

HOGG — Queen's Wake.

 

43. He chats like popinjay,

And struts with phiz tremendously erect.

TENNENT — Anster Fair.

 

44. His large fair front, and eye sublime, declare

Absolute rule, and hyacinthine locks.

Round from his parted forelock, manly hang

Clustering.

MILTON — Paradise Lost.

 

45. A sweet-faced man; a proper man as one shall see in a summer's day; a most lovely, gentlemanly like man.

Midsummer Night's Dream.

 

46. Dark deep eyes, and lips

Whose motions gift the air they breathe with love.

SHELLEY.

 

47. Full long are both his spindle-shanks, and lean

Just like a walking-stick — no calf is seen.

CHAUCER.

 

48. Faster than his tongue

Doth make offence, his eye doth heal it up.

As You Like It.

 

49. His eyes are like the eagle's, yet sometimes

Liker the dove's; and at his will he wins

I All hearts with softness, or with spirit awes.

HOME — Douglass.

 

50. There's a cold bearing,

And grave, severe aspect about the man.

That makes our spirits pay him such respect,

As though he dwelt ‘neath age's silvery pent-house,

Despite his unripe years.

FANNY KEMBLE.

 

51. Young and fair,

Yet a man; — with crisped hair,

Cast in thousand snares and rings

For Love's fingers, and his wings:

Chesnut color, or more slack

Gold, upon a ground of black.

BEN JONSON.

 

52. A brow half martial, and half diplomatic.

An eye upsoaring like an eagle's wings.

HALLECK.

53. He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth;

He writes verses, he speaks holiday,

He smells April and May.

Merry Wives of Windsor.

 

54. ’Tis not his talent to conceal his thoughts,

And carry smiles and sunshine in his face,

I When discontent sits heavy at his heart.

ADDISON — Cato.

 

55. A fop complete,

He stalks the jest and glory of the street.

CRABBE.

 

56. Oh what a grace is seated on his brow!

A combination and a form indeed.

Where every god doth seem to set his seal

To give the world assurance of a man.

Hamlet.

 

57. Such beauty as great strength thinks no disgrace,

I Smiles in tlie manly features of his face;

His large black eyes, fill’d with a spriteful light,

Shoot forth such lively and illustrious night,

As the sunbeams on jet reflecting show;

His hair is black, in short curl’d waves doth flow;

His tall, straight body amid thousands stands, I

Like some fair pine o’erlooking all the lands.

COWLEY — Davideis.

 

58. He witches the world with noble horsemanship,

And vaults into his saddle with such ease.

As if an angel dropt down from the clouds

To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus.

Henry IV.

 

59. A stalwart, active, soldier-looking stripling,

Handsome as Hercules ere his first labor,

And with a brow of thought beyond his years

When in repose, till his eye kindles up,

In answering yours.

BYRON — Werner.

 

60. His face is dark, but very quiet;

It seems like looking down the dusky mouth

Of a great cannon.

JOHN STIRLING — Strafford.