A Lady by Amy Lowell

A Ladyby Amy Lowell 1874 – 1925You are beautiful and faded,Like an old opera tunePlayed upon a harpsichord;Or like the sun-flooded silksOf an eighteenth-century boudoir. In your eyesSmoulder the fallen roses of outlived minutes,And the perfume of your soulIs vague and suffusing,With the pungence of sealed spice-jars.Your half-tones delight me,And I grow mad with gazingAt your blent colors.My vigor is a new-minted penny,Which I cast at your feet.Gather it up from the dustThat its sparkle may amuse you.