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A Photograph

John Charles McNeill

When in this room I turn in pondering pace
And find thine eyes upon me where I stand,
Led on, as by Enemo’s silken strand,
I come and gaze and gaze upon thy face.

Framed round by silence, poised on pearl-white grace
Of curving throat, too sweet for beaded band,
It seems as if some wizard’s magic wand
Had wrought thee for the love of all the race.

Dear face, that will not turn about to see
The tulips, glorying in the casement sun,
Or, other days, the drizzled raindrops run

Down the damp walls, but follow only me,
Would that Pygmalion’s goddess might be won
To change this lifeless image into thee!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Songs, Merry and Sad | Stone & Barringer Co., 1906
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