The Crown of a Woman

G.K. Chesterton wrote this exquisite, lyrical, poem on the beauty of a woman. Focusing mainly on that which catches every man's eye and what St. Paul told women to cover up (because they were distracting of course) "But when a woman has long hair, it is her glory!" (1 Corinthians 11:15)

- The Crown of a Woman - 

In a house between the sunrise and the sunset
In the twilight of a mighty house and old,
Sits a woman ' mid the treasuries of her tresses
Like the fountains of a living sea of gold,

Photo not my own. 

And she weaves the golden legend of the ages
With the braids of her own tresses thereunto
And only with that tracery for the pages
Is the story ever old and ever new.
        For the hair of a woman is her glory
        It weaveth all of secret and renown
        Through all chivalry and mystery and story
              The glory of a woman and her crown.

When the giant limbs of Adam stirred primeval
From the sudden sleep that smote him on the hills
When the sparrows scattered at his vast upheaval
And his blinded gropings rent the daffodils
On his mighty twilight broke a windy splendor (I really would like to know what this means)
Round eyes that were as suns upon his sleep
The burning halo passionate with colours
The leaping locks that call the heart to leap
        For the hair of a woman is her glory
        It weaveth all of secret and renown

Lady of Chivalry

        Through all chivalry and mystery and story
              The glory of a woman and her crown.

The sunshine of the Lord that crowns and quickens
The brows and breasts of all the lives that toil.
The cornfield of the Lord that nods and shimmers
The stirring of the splendor of the soil
The harp-strings of the Lord that ring and crackle
With the song of all the stars and their desire
The war-flame of the Lord, to scourge the Evil
The fangs thereof consuming as a fire
        For the hair of a woman is her glory.
        It weaveth all of secret and renown
        Through all chivalry and mystery and story
               The glory of a woman and her crown.