# Beauty — Poetry character guide

> Beauty in Poetry by Ameen Rihani.

**Role:** minor

**First appearance:** 0015-in-the-meadow

## Who they are

An abstract personification of beauty, treated as a character.

## Relationships

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

Beauty is an abstract, almost obsessive ideal for the narrator, representing both inspiration and unattainable desire.

## In the story

### [Poetry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/poetry)

Personified as an eternal ideal that poetry seeks to express.

### [A Better Woe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/a-better-woe)

Referenced as 'barren breast of beauty' that glows, symbolizing an elusive or unattainable ideal.

### [In the Meadow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/in-the-meadow)

The beloved maiden whose curls and tresses are described.

### [Retribution](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/retribution)

The object of devotion at whose shrine the narrator is now bound.

### [Lilatu Laili](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/lilatu-laili)

Personified force whose high heels crush the narrator's heart, soul, and shame.

### [Midnight Mood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/midnight-mood)

The beloved, addressed as 'Twilight,' with Eastern eyes and a youthful breast, is the object of the narrator's desire.

### [A Serenade](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/a-serenade)

The beloved addressed as 'my sleeping queen,' 'my peerless star,' and 'my sweetest flower,' the object of the poet's desire.

### [The Brass Bed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/the-brass-bed)

Personified as a force that cannot bring life, contrasted with Pain.

### [The God of My Goddess](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/the-god-of-my-goddess)

The goddess who presides over the speaker's feast of delight, and whose god he seeks.

### [Stolen Salvias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/stolen-salvias)

The beloved who crowned the speaker with stars and playfully 'slew' him, associated with the theft of the salvias.

### [Beneath the Salvias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/beneath-the-salvias)

Implied as the 'lady' or beloved addressed in the poem, the object of the speaker's dream and desire.

### [O, Give Me Strength to Take](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/o-give-me-strength-to-take)

Referenced as the field from which the sweetest flowers must grow, representing an ideal or standard the speaker feels he cannot meet.

### [Near the Cascades](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/near-the-cascades)

Invoked as 'Beauty's daughter, Beauty's bride,' representing an idealized, transcendent force.

### [The End and the Beginning](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/the-end-and-the-beginning)

The 'mother eternal of the dead' is interpreted as Beauty, sorrow-laden yet smiling, embodying renewal.

### [Water and Flowers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/water-and-flowers)

Implied as the beloved addressed, the one invited to share in the flowers and springs.

### [The Wanderer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/the-wanderer)

Personified as weeping where God once trod, symbolizing loss and spiritual longing.

### [The Lost Disciple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/the-lost-disciple)

The woman at the spring who beckons the disciple with tulips and poppies, representing earthly love and desire.

### [Badruddin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/badruddin)

Personified as a maid cooking sesame under the transformed tree, dispelling human woe.

### [The Sufi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/the-sufi)

A form of grace and beauty descried as Love, coming to pay toll to the soul.

### [A Chant of Mystics](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/chapters/a-chant-of-mystics)

Personified as the Beloved whose glance enraptures the dancers.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/characters/beauty
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_2_se/characters