IN AN ARTIST STUDIO BY CHRISTINA ROSETTI(1830-1894)

                                              One face looks out from all his canvases,
                                             One selfsame figure sits on walks or leans:
                                           We found her hidden just behind the screens,
                                              That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
                                                  A queen in opal or in ruby dress,
                                            A nameless girl in freshest summer greens,
                                             A saint, an angel-every canvas means
                                          The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
                                            He feeds upon  her face by day and night
                                        And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,
                                            Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
                                          Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
                                        No as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
                                            Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.