Sonnet CCLXXXIII:
Fairest of all the fair ones I have seen,
Fairest of all, in feature not alone,
Nor form, nor grace, nor glance, nor voice’s tone,
Nor all that makes thee of fair women queen.
Not one alone, nor all of these I mean,
When I so proudly crown my very own,
As peerless empress upon Nature’s throne,
Outranking all that are or e’er have been.
It is the soul of her, the inner power,
Round which her beauty crystallized and grew
By its own law, that is her fairest dower.
She, though she be of womankind the flower,
Expresses yet a mystery hidden from view;
To know whose secret I abide God’s hour.
