I fill this cup to one made up
of loveliness alone,

1828?

thanks
Steve

Here you are. Of course, I'm wondering if there's a hidden message in 'seeming paragon.'

pam

Edward Coate Pinkney. 1802–1828

A Health

I FILL this cup to one made up of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex the seeming paragon;
To whom the better elements and kindly stars have given
A form so fair, that, like the air, 't is less of earth than heaven.

Her every tone is music's own, like those of morning birds,
And something more than melody dwells ever in her words;
The coinage of her heart are they, and from her lips each flows
As one may see the burthened bee forth issue from the rose.

Affections are as thoughts to her, the measures of her hours;
Her feelings have the fragrancy, the freshness, of young flowers;
And lovely passions, changing oft, so fill her, she appears
The image of themselves by turns,—the idol of past years!

Of her bright face one glance will trace a picture on the brain,
And of her voice in echoing hearts a sound must long remain;
But memory such as mine of her so very much endears, 15
When death is nigh my latest sigh will not be life's but hers.

I filled this cup to one made up of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle sex the seeming paragon—
Her health! and would on earth there stood some more of such a frame,
That life might be all poetry, and weariness a name.

re "seeming paragon"

There may be a hidden meaning, but my hunch is that it's just there as a modest way to fill out the meter. (Cp. our discussion of "if God choose" in the sonnet "How do I love thee, let me count the ways.")

He's saying "the best woman I've ever known" rather than "the best woman ever created."

Hmmm. Finest paragon would have fit, and is less obscure. Perhaps it is just, she seems to me to be the paragon?

I think he's just reserving judgment until he knows her better, and has the uneasy feeling that if and when he does get to know her better, he might revise that judgment.

He's your normal cautious male - you know, the type who looks out of the window when you tell him it's raining!