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From Helen Maria Williams's poem "Edwin and Eltruda, A Legendary Tale" (1782).
London: printed for T. Cadell, 1782.

These lines, describing Eltruda's face, come after the following stanza:

"Twas easy in her look to trace
An emblem of her mind:
There dwelt each mild attractive grace,
Each gentle grace combin'd."

The Poem was accompanied by the following note: "THE young Lady who is the writer of the following Poem is a native of London, but was removed, with her Family, in very early life, to a remote part of the kingdom, where her sole instruction was derived from a virtuous, amiable, and sensible mother. In so distant a situation, she had such little access to books, that, when the piece now presented to the public was written, she had not read Mr. Cartwright's Armine and Elvira, Dr. Percy's Hermit of Warkworth, and other beautiful productions of that kind. On her return to the metropolis last summer, the Poem being shewn to several of her acquaintance, they earnestly requested its publication; to which she hath consented, with the modesty and diffidence that, in the season of youth, are the usual concomitants of true virtue. Having long been intimate with the family, I with pleasure undertook the task of Editor; and my pleasure will be greatly increased, if this performance shall meet with a favourable reception from the judges of poetical merit. Should there be found in it many marks of an elegant and pathetic genius, to these not only the candid, but even the judicious critic will direct his principal attention; and will be disposed to forgive the simplicity of the story, and that diffusion of sentiment which is so natural to a youthful mind, in its first essays in composition."

Soft, as the dews of morn arise,
And on the pale flower gleam;
So soft Eltruda's melting eyes
With love and pity beam.

As drest in charms, the lonely flower
Smiles in the desert vale;
With beauty gilds the morning hour,
And scents the evening gale;

So liv'd in solitude, unseen,
This lovely, peerless maid;
So grac'd the wild, sequester'd scene,
And blossom'd in the shade.

Yet love could pierce the lone recess,
For there he likes to dwell;
To leave the noisy crowd, and bless
With happiness the cell.

1782

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