| William Wilfred Campbell, comp. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. 1913. | | | | My Madonna | | By Robert William Service (1874–1958) |
| | | I HAILED me a woman from the street, | |
| Shameless, but, oh, so fair! | |
| I bade her sit in the model’s seat, | |
| And I painted her sitting there. | |
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| I hid all trace of her heart unclean; | 5 |
| I painted a babe at her breast; | |
| I painted her as she might have been | |
| If the Worst had been the Best. | |
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| She laughed at my picture and went away. | |
| Then came, with a knowing nod, | 10 |
| A connoisseur, and I heard him say: | |
| ‘’Tis Mary, the Mother of God.’ | |
| |
| So I painted a halo round her hair, | |
| And I sold her, and took my fee, | |
| And she hangs in the church of Saint Hilaire, | 15 |
| Where you and all may see. | | | | |
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