I Shall Be Beautiful

I shall be beautiful some far-off day,

And eyes of love will look and find me fair;

For in my soul, flower-sweet and angel-pure,

Will blossom every secret, silent prayer

For beauty, which I may not yet attain,

But only love and seek with longing pain.

Love graciously will grant my heart’s desire,

Upon my brows will bind hope’s immortelles;

And I shall be as one with bud and bloom

That grace the sunny hills and dewy dells

On yon far shore where all the year is spring

And singing birds are ever on the wing.

O heart of mine!  Though storms beat fierce and wild,

Turn thee not back.  Thou shalt win safely through,

For love immortal leads thee by the hand.

Some sweet spring dawn thou shalt be all made new

And out of mists and clouds that gloom the night

Shalt pass to regions of undreamed delight.

-       Lillian Leveridge[1]

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[1] Lillian Leveridge was born in Hockering, Norfolk County, England in 1879. When she was four, her parents moved the family to Canada, settling in Hastings County, Ontario. In 1914, they relocated to Prince Edward Island. Lillian eventually moved to Toronto and became a schoolteacher. She also wrote poems; her most widely known piece was Over the Hills of Home, written as a tribute to her brother Frank, who died in the Great War in France. Lillian died in 1953. (Source: Canadian Poems of the Great War, 1918, by John W. Garvin)