A PRETTY picture hangs before my view; The face, in little, of a Southern dame, To me unknown (though not unknown to fame) Save by the lines the cunning limner drew. So grandly Grecian is the lady's head, I took her for Minerva in disguise; But when I marked the winning lips and eyes, I thought of Aphrodite, in her stead; And then I kissed her calm, unanswering mouth (The picture's mine) as any lover might, In the deep fervor of a nuptial night, And envied him who, in the "Sunny South," Calls her his own whose shadow can impart Such very sunshine to a Northern heart! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: J. MILTON MILES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS LENNIE SWENSON by KAREN SWENSON TO A CASTILIAN SONG by SARA TEASDALE OUT WHERE THE WEST BEGINS by ARTHUR CHAPMAN DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 5. THE STEVEDORES by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER ODE IN MEMORY OF THE AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS FALLEN FOR FRANCE by ALAN SEEGER THE PROPHECY OF SAMUEL SEWALL by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |