On Ames' Picture of "Maud Müller"

THE canvas quite glows with this wonder of art,From my memory surely it never will part—This image which greeted my vision while there;Why language quite fails when I try to compareThis picture of Maud, which the poet portrayed,And Ames has with beauty and grace so arrayed;So perfect and lovely the beautiful whole,As though it contained a pure living soul.

Conceptions how lofty the painter inspired;And as he embodied how much he admired;His dream how enchanting, his colors sublime,So blended each tint by his touch half divine,Spiritual, aye, still a creature of life,Here born to be burdened with anguish and strife;To the painter so gifted I fain would appealThat he may no more such beauties reveal.