Well, of all gifts the Fairies gave,
HERS is the present that I treasure!

The bore whom others fear and flee,
I do not fear, I do not flee him;
I pass him calm as calm can be;
I do not cut--I do not see him!
And with my feeble eyes and dim,
Where YOU see patchy fields and fences,
For me the mists of Turner swim -
MY "azure distance" soon commences!
Nay, as I blink about the streets
Of this befogged and miry city,
Why, almost every girl one meets
Seems preternaturally pretty!
"Try spectacles," one's friends intone;
"You'll see the world correctly through them."
But I have visions of my own,
And not for worlds would I undo them.



BENEDETTA RAMUS.
AFTER ROMNEY.



Mysterious Benedetta! who
That Reynolds or that Romney drew
Was ever half so fair as you,