Three-quarter-length portrait of a formally dressed woman (Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford)
shown in profile. She holds a shawl
and flowers in her left hand. She stands in front of a low stone wall and beside a
large potted plant. Plants surround her at the
bottom of the illustration. There are dark clouds in the sky and trees in the background.
Full-page illustration.
Lady, thy face is very beautiful,1
A calm and stately beauty : thy dark hair2
Hangs as the passing winds paid homage there ;3
And gems, such gems as only princes cull4
From earth’s rich veins, are round thy neck and arm ;5
Ivory, with just one touch of colour warm ;6
And thy white robe floats queen-like, suiting well7
A shape such as in ancient picture dwell !8
If thou hadst lived in that old haunted time,9
When sovereign Beauty was a thing sublime,10
For which knights went to battle, and her glove11
Had even more of glory than of love ;—12
Hadst thou lived in those days, how chivalrie,13
With brand and banner, would have honour’d thee !14
Then had this picture been a chronicle,15
Of whose contents might only poets tell16
What king had worn thy chains, what heroes sigh’d,17
What thousands nameless, hopeless, for thee died.18
But thou art of the Present—there is nought19
About thee for the dreaming minstrel’s thought,20
Save vague imagination, which still lives21
Upon the charmed light all beauty gives.22
What hath romancing lute, or fancied line,23
Or colour’d words to do with thee or thine ?24
No, the chords sleep in silence at thy feet,25
They have no measures for thy music meet ;26
The poet hath no part in it, his dream27
Would too much idleness of flattery seem ;28
And to that lovely picture only pays29
The wordless homage of a lingering gaze.30