“WHY DID I SKETCH”
Reading edition
Why did I sketch an upland green, And put the figure in Of one on the spot with me?— For now that one has ceased to be seen The picture waxes akin To a wordless irony.
If you go drawing on down or cliff Let no soft curves intrude Of a woman’s silhouette, But show the escarpments stark and stiff As in utter solitude; So shall you half forget.
Let me sooner pass from sight of the sky Than again on a thoughtless day Limn, laugh, and sing, and rhyme With a woman sitting near, whom I Paint in for love, and who may Be called hence in my time!
From an old note.