File:Fair women in painting and poetry (1894) (14761660034).jpg

Identifier: fairwomeninpaint00shar (find matches)
Title: Fair women in painting and poetry
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Sharp, William, 1855-1905
Subjects: Women in literature Women in art Women Beauty, Personal
Publisher: London : Seeley New York : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
eek an Ideala ofour own. After all, as some one has said, women are like melons : it isonly after having tasted them that we know whether they are goodor not. We must be content with some one short of Perfecta. Unequalunions are deplorable. Moreover, it is very unsatisfactory to emulatethe example of the celebrated Parisian bouquineur, who worried throughlife without a copy of Virgil, because he could not succeed in finding theideal Virgil of his dreams. Ideala is as the wind that cometh andgoeth where it listeth. Rather, she may be likened to the Wind forever fleeting along that nameless but always discoverable road whichleads the wayfarer to the forest of beautiful dreams. ) Moreover, She may appear anywhere, at any time. Remember Cam-pions Shes not to one form tied. Possibly, even, she may be calledNell Gwynne ; for to every Nell there will be a lover to whom she willbe Helen. 1 Vide Mrs. Wingatc Rindcrs Introduction to her recently published delightfulanthology of Poems of Nature.
Text Appearing After Image:
Nell Gtvynne. By Sir Peter Lely. 66 FAIR WOMEN Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore,That gently, oer a perfumed sea,The weary, wayworn wanderer boreTo his own native shore. Lo ! in yon brilliant window niche, How statue-like I see thee stand, The agate lamp within thy hand ! Ah, Psyche, from the regions which Are Holy Land ! It is a pity that where a Helen is so evident to one passionate pilgrim, she should merely be Nell to the world in general. But so it is ; and, alas ! the very last person to perceive the connection with Psyche is often Nell herself. Poets get little gratitude, as a rule, for the glorifi-cation they effect. Poor bards ! they are apt to address as Ideala those who would rather be called Nell, and dedicate their deepest life-music to a mistress who, while flattered, really understands neither the poetry nor the poet, and can be more eloquent over a gift of gloves than over a work of genius. Thus hath it ever been ; doubtless thus it shall continue. As

Note About Images