Classic Poem

PAINTED BY WILLIAM WILLARD

Look on this lady! and behold in her
What women could be, and what women were,
In days, gone by, before the excess of books
Had weighed their natures down and marred their looks:
A face that could not frown, and if it smile,
Reveals a soul incapable of guile;
Spirito gentil! believing others clean,
Thinking no scandal, noting nothing mean;
As far away from sourness as from vanity,
Perfect in purity, — not Puritanity.