With eyes that petrified my brain, and sunk into my heart.

“Why don’t you laugh? ’Tis funny that the vagabond you see

Could ever love a woman and expect her love for me;

But ’twas so, and for a month or two her smile was freely given;

And when her loving lips touched mine, it carried me to heaven.

“Boys, did you ever see a girl for whom your soul you’d give,

With a form like the Milo Venus, too beautiful to live,

With eyes that would beat the Kohinoor and a wealth of chestnut hair?

If so, ’twas she, for there never was another half so fair.

“I was working on a portrait one afternoon in May,