To beauty born in an era of blindness

You’ve come too late, my love, to shine;
an antique pearl in an age of swine.
Man’s lost all love for things divine.
You are the sun but men are blind.

First came the flowers; when Nature’s hand
invented some new thing called beauty;
then, for her mirror, she made man
and, at first, mankind knew its duty.

But man and Nature moved apart;
bright reverence turned to self- love;
now man’s the subject of his art
and Earth kneels whilst he towers above.

Now, through self-love, man’s lost himself.
His soul, with nature, once entwined,
now cannot tell true worth from wealth.
You’ve come too late, my love, to shine.