• In the English language there is a word,
    For which no good definition I have heard.
    To define it, I have made it my duty,
    The word I now describe is beauty.
    It would seem the definition is easy,
    But what I’ve begun is making me queasy.
    Many have told me, ‘its aesthetically pleasing’
    Yet to me, they seem to be breezing.
    I have finally decided that this thing called beauty
    Isn’t just a word—to those above, please don’t get snooty.
    I have no wish to offend you,
    But your definition does not commend you.
    But for those who still wish to doubt,
    I will use these examples to beat on your snout.
    All the seasons have their ups and their downs—
    They come with their smiles and their frowns.
    For each I shall provide an example,
    And remember, this is just a sample.
    Many have seen the wondrous beauty in spring,
    Yet to them, beauty in people may be a passing thing.
    Some people see beauty in the breezes and storms of summer
    Those who succumb to the heat think of it more as a bummer.
    Pretty colors among the trees in fall abound,
    But evergreens stay the same all year round.
    Many songs are there of the beauty of snow,
    But how would all those down in Florida know?
    Different styles of art appeared without reason or rhyme,
    Providing different opinions of beauty each time.
    The paintings of Picasso, it would seem,
    ‘A human face is not art’, they do deem.
    Some new stuff is contemporary—some call it art,
    Some call it garbage; yet to many it’s a shopping cart.
    Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa never cracks a smile,
    And still her beauty’s seen by the rank and file.
    Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Vincent van Gogh,
    All have beautiful artwork to show.
    The style known across centuries as the Baroque,
    Used light and motion to great feelings evoke.
    Classicism defined beauty as that of Greece and Rome!
    Many of its buildings had columns and dome.
    Cubism, modernism, expressionism, abstract, and pop,
    Surrealism, minimalism, the list does not stop!
    Still my aunt’s right about a beautiful ocean
    And that a running horse is beauty in motion.
    Astrologists see the beauty of fate,
    Dependant on your birth date.
    Some would say ‘beauty is only skin deep’
    Yet I thought the soul, in beauty did steep.
    But perhaps it also applies to other senses,
    And I’ve spent my time sitting on fences.
    ‘That’s so beautiful’ a teary-eyed listener may say of a poem
    Yet he’s never seen the words nor must he know ‘em.
    Just how beautiful can something be
    When you don’t even get a chance to see?
    Personally, the best smell is fresh baked apple pie,
    But a pile of crap may be best to a little fly.
    Never heard someone say ‘that feels beautiful’
    But that doesn’t mean such things aren’t plentiful.
    And yet despite all this confusion around,
    I think I may have narrowed it down:
    Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder—
    Whatever tickles your fancy may be ugly to her.
    And the true beauty, which my eyes do view,
    Is quite simply, the face of you.