The Angel in the House. Coventry Patmore

      That, though his blessing and his pray’r

         Had help’d, should help, my suit, yet he

      Left all to me, his passive share

         Consent and opportunity.

      My chance, he hoped, was good: I’d won

         Some name already; friends and place

      Appear’d within my reach, but none

         Her mind and manners would not grace.

      Girls love to see the men in whom

         They invest their vanities admired;

      Besides, where goodness is, there room

         For good to work will be desired.

      ’Twas so with one now pass’d away;

         And what she was at twenty-two,

      Honor was now; and he might say

         Mine was a choice I could not rue.