Portrait Of A Lady-1

Ladies a-plenty Have painters drawn In velvet and cramoise, Lace and lawn; Grave Infantas In stiff brocades; Nymphs that wanton In woodland shades; Mild Madonnas Who gaze serene From many a gilded And carven screen. Reynolds' beauties Like country posies; Dames of Flanders Like full-blown roses. And here's a lady Fair as them all, Gracious to look upon, Royally tall. Many her lovers Of old have been; Men have paid court to her As to a Queen, Humoured her whimsies, Watched her ways, Lovingly chided her, Sung her praise, Served her in poverty, Hunger and cold, Spent their best years for her, Toiled and grown old, Lavished upon her A loyalty true, Ay, and, if need were, Died for her too. Yonder's her picture (In oils, no less!), The Colonies' clipper, Good Queen Bess , Taking her pilot Off Dungeness.