Selected Poetry.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 21, 6 April 1870, Page 7

Selected Poetry.

TTTC PICTURE OF T-'E WdHlLft

BV R it. SII.L.

tdn.e morninv of a «u ninsr’s day U 'l'm a painter’s easel lay. The picture of a c'-.iH at plav ; A form of laughing life anil grace. And finished, al! o'tcppt the place Left empty fo.r th,i untouched face • In nodding violets, half asleep, The dancing feet were, ankle deep ; One rounded arm was heaping u p t With clover blop.ra and buttercup ; The other tossed a blossom high To litre a lowering butterfly, 'Twaa easy to, imagine there. In that round frame of rippled hair. The wanting face ail bright and fair.

A sadder artist came that day, Looked on the picture wher4 it lay, And sitting in the, painter’s place, He painted in the missing face. From his own heart the hues he took-* Lo ! wip'd a wan and woeful look 1 Under that mocking wreath of flowers, A brow worn old with weary hours ; A face—once nean one still must see ; Wise, awful eyes, solemnity ; Lips long ago. too tired to hide The torture-lines where love had died ( The look of a despair too late, Too dead to even be desperate ; A face for which so far away The. struggles and the protest lav, No memory of it more could stay. Repulsed and reckless, withered, wild. It started above that dancing child.

At night a musing post came, And shuddering, wrote beneath its name.