The Fellah

On seeing a Water-Colour by Princess Mathilde

Caprice of brush fantastical, And of imperial idleness, Your fellah-sphinx presents us all With an enigma worth the guess.

A rigid fashion, verily, This mask, this garment, seem to us, Intriguing with its mystery The ball-room's every Oedipus.

Isis bequeathed her veil of old To modern daughters of the Nile. But through this band austere, behold, Two stars of radiance beam and smile,--

Two stars, two eyes, two poems that spring, The soft, voluptuous fires whereof Resolve the riddle, murmuring: "Lo, I am Beauty! Be thou Love!"