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Dinah Maria Mulock - Leonora
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LEONORA, Leonora, 
How the word rolls--Leonora-- 
Lion-like, in full-mouthed sound, 
Marching o`er the metric ground 
With a tawny tread sublime-- 
So your name moves, Leonora, 
Down my desert rhyme. 

So you pace, young Leonora, 
Through the alleys of the wood, 
Head erect, majestic, tall, 
The fit daughter of the Hall: 
Yet with hazel eyes declined, 
And a voice like summer wind, 
And a meek mouth, sweet and good, 
Dimpling ever, Leonora, 
In fair womanhood. 

How those smiles dance, Leonora, 
As you meet the pleasant breeze 
Under your ancestral trees: 
For your heart is free and pure 
As this blue March sky o`erhead, 
And in the life-path you tread, 
All the leaves are budding, sure, 
All the primroses are springing, 
All the birds begin their singing-- 
`T is your spring-time, Leonora, 
May it long endure. 

But it will pass, Leonora: 
And the silent days must fall 
When a change comes over all: 
When the last leaf downward flitters, 
And the last, last sunbeam glitters 
On the terraced hillside cool, 
On the peacocks by the pool: 
When you`ll walk along these alleys 
With no lightsome foot that dallies 
With the violets and the moss,-- 
But with quiet steps and slow, 
And grave eyes that earthward grow, 
And a matron-heart inured 
To all women have endured,-- 
Must endure and ever will, 
All the joy and all the ill, 
All the gain and all the loss-- 
Can you cheerfully lay down 
Careless girlhood`s flowery crown, 
And thus take up, Leonora, 
Womanhood`s meek cross? 

Ay! your eyes shine, Leonora, 
Warm, and true, and brave, and kind: 
And although I nothing know 
Of the maiden heart below, 
I in them good omens find. 
Go, enjoy your present hours 
Like the birds and bees and flowers: 
And may summer days bestow 
On you just so much of rain, 
Blessed baptism of pain! 
As will make your blossoms grow. 
May you walk, as through life`s road 
Every noble woman can,-- 
With a pure heart before God, 
And a true heart unto man: 
Till with this same smile you wait 
For the opening of the Gate 
That shuts earth from mortal eyes; 
Till at last, with peaceful heart, 
All contented to depart, 
Leaving children`s children playing 
In these woods you used to stray in, 
You may enter, Leonora, 
Into Paradise.
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