No! Not one trace of make-up did she wear
but kept her dress as simple as her heart
was pure. She wore no ribbons in such hair
as she displayed, it seems, with “artless art.”
Yet, of all creatures that are beautiful,
she was the wisest and the best.
Compared with her all others seemed so dull.
(Why! Just to look at her left all things blest.)
Nature conspires, in such, to bring to bear
all of its force and fury on one place
so innocently it can hardly share
its deepest plenitude without that grace
she freely makes available to all
beyond the limits of Man’s final Fall.
John H.B. Martin is a poet who lives in London, England. He is a graduate of London University and Australia National University and has been writing for many decades. He has written four novels and is working on a fifth. His magnum opus is a six-volume epic poem. Most of his work is yet to be published.
The first six lines made a nice start but the poem gets bogged down in wordiness for me: "such hair," "so dull," "in such," "all of its," "that grace," " that are beautiful," etc. If the rest of the poem could be brought up to the level of the first six lines, I would like it better.
Beautiful, with a profound conclusion.
This is a fine sonnet, and it's always a pleasure to read fine, well-crafted work, especially work that has a visionary aspect to it. The phrase "artless art" caught my eye, and you have placed it in inverted commas. Are you, perhaps, alluding to Egal Bohen's poem 'Artless Art', which ties in somewhat with your theme? Either way, nice work John.