| Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Second Book of Modern Verse. 1922. |
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| A Lady |
| | | Amy Lowell (1874–1925) |
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| YOU 1 are beautiful and faded | |
| Like an old opera tune | |
| Played upon a harpsichord; | |
| Or like the sun-flooded silks | |
| Of an eighteenth-century boudoir. | 5 |
| In your eyes | |
| Smoulder the fallen roses of out-lived minutes, | |
| And the perfume of your soul | |
| Is vague and suffusing, | |
| With the pungence of sealed spice-jars. | 10 |
| Your half-tones delight me, | |
| And I grow mad with gazing | |
| At your blent colours. | |
| My vigour is a new-minted penny, | |
| Which I cast at your feet. | 15 |
| Gather it up from the dust, | |
| That its sparkle may amuse you. | |
| | | Note 1. Reprinted by permission of the publishers, from Sword Blades and Poppy Seed, by Amy Lowell. Copyright, 1914, by The Macmillan Company. [back] |
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