Portrait Of A Lady-1 Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

Ladies a-plenty
Have painters drawn
In velvet and cramoise,
Lace and lawn;

Grave Infantas
In stiff brocades;
Nymphs that wanton
In woodland shades;

Mild Madonnas
Who gaze serene
From many a gilded
And carven screen.

Reynolds' beauties
Like country posies;
Dames of Flanders
Like full-blown roses.

And here's a lady
Fair as them all,
Gracious to look upon,
Royally tall.

Many her lovers
Of old have been;
Men have paid court to her
As to a Queen,

Humoured her whimsies,
Watched her ways,
Lovingly chided her,
Sung her praise,

Served her in poverty,
Hunger and cold,
Spent their best years for her,
Toiled and grown old,

Lavished upon her
A loyalty true,
Ay, and, if need were,
Died for her too.

Yonder's her picture
(In oils, no less!),
The Colonies' clipper,

Good Queen Bess
,
Taking her pilot
Off Dungeness.