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 draught, 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.