She issues radiant from her dressing-room, <br />Like one prepared to scale an upper sphere: <br />--By stirring up a lower, much I fear <br />How deftly that oiled barber lays his bloom <br />That long-shanked dapper Cupid with frisked curls <br />Can make known women torturingly fair; <br />The gold-eyed serpent dwelling in rich hair, <br />Awakes beneath his magic whisks and twirls. <br />His art can take the eyes from out my head, <br />Until I see with eyes of other men; <br />While deeper knowledge crouches in its den, <br />And sends a spark up:--is it true we are wed? <br />Yea! filthiness of body is most vile, <br />But faithlessness of heart I do hold worse. <br />The former, it were not so great a curse <br />To read on the steel-mirror of her smile.<br /><br />George Meredith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/modern-love-vii-she-issues-radiant/
