Eva

Eva, the first of the fair ones,
Taught all her daughters to paint;
Using indelible colors,
Seeress and siren and saint.

Banished them all to the brook brims,
There in benign ambuscade,
Taught them the art of portraying
Beauty that never may fade.

Voiced she the values of the shadows
Moored to the moss-mantled crags;
Primed them to pose by the dwarf palms
And mid the cat-tails and flags.

Thus by each crevice and cavern,
Thus in the lunettes and glades,
There are depicted all damsels,
Eva’s most wonderful maids.

Traceries tender and dimpled,
Intricate art of design;
Shadowy ideals of Eden,
Even of Eva, divine.

Breathe but a name in the bowers,
Pour out her praise as a prayer;
Forth from the fronds floats a presence,
Vestured in loveliness rare.

Thus, since the first of the fair ones,
All of the daughters of Eve,
Portray in permanent colors,
Making men see and believe.