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 drought, 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.

From an old note