A Lady of Light

Beauty most sublime is very rare
    A thing in one so betrayed afresh.
Yet, with placid poise that's still fair,
    One lucent in spirit and in flesh,
With an inner light beyond compare,
    Causes light and shadow to unmesh.

One like her, of most uncanny kind,
    Appears once a lifetime and a half.
Her lightness of beauty and mind   
    Imparts healing like Hermes's staff;
And to justice her spirit's not blind
    As it sifts the wheat from the chaff.

Lightsome as the night Hesperus,
    She brightens the darkened crevices
Of fear, ignorance, and prejudice
    A Lady of Light free of vices;
Whose radiance, strong in radius,
    Dispels grim Death's dark devices.