THE FIGURE IN THE SCENE

It pleased her to step in front and sit

Where the cragged slope was green,

While I stood back that I might pencil it

With her amid the scene;

Till it gloomed and rained;

But I kept on, despite the drifting wet

That fell and stained

My draught, leaving for curious quizzings yet

The blots engrained.

And thus I drew her there alone,

Seated amid the gauze

Of moisture, hooded, only her outline shown,

With rainfall marked across.

— Soon passed our stay;

Yet her rainy form is the Genius still of the spot,

Immutable, yea,

Though the place now knows her no more, and has known her not

Ever since that day.