In an Artist's Studio

One face looks out from all her canvasses.
One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in black 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.
She feeds upon her face by day and night.
And she with true kind eyes looks back on her.
Fair as the moon and joyful as light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim:
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright:
Not as she is, but as she fills her dream.