Discouraging Model

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2>A DISCOURAGING MODEL</h2> <p>Just the airiest, fairiest slip of a thing,<br/> With a Gainsborough hat, like a butterfly's wing,<br/> Tilted up at one side with the jauntiest air,<br/> And a knot of red roses sown in under there<br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where the shadows are lost in her hair.</span><br/> <br/><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_134" id="Page_134"> [Pg 134]</SPAN></span> Then a cameo face, carven in on a ground<br/> Of that shadowy hair where the roses are wound;<br/> And the gleam of a smile O as fair and as faint<br/> And as sweet as the masters of old used to paint<br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Round the lips of their favorite saint!</span><br/> <br/> And that lace at her throat&mdash;and the fluttering hands<br/> Snowing there, with a grace that no art understands<br/> The flakes of their touches&mdash;first fluttering at<br/> The bow&mdash;then the roses&mdash;the hair&mdash;and then that<br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">Little tilt of the Gainsborough hat.</span><br/> <br/> What artist on earth, with a model like this,<br/> Holding not on his palette the tint of a kiss,<br/> Nor a pigment to hint of the hue of her hair,<br/> Nor the gold of her smile&mdash;O what artist could dare<br/> <span style="margin-left: 2em;">To expect a result half so fair?</span><br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />