<h3><SPAN name="The_Ideal" id="The_Ideal"></SPAN>The Ideal</h3>
<p class="margin-b">
It could ne'er be those beauties of ivory vignettes;<br/>
The varied display of a worthless age,<br/>
Nor puppet-like figures with castonets,<br/>
That ever an heart like mine could engage.<br/>
<br/>
I leave to Gavarni, that poet of chlorosis,<br/>
His hospital-beauties in troups that whirl,<br/>
For I cannot discover amid his pale roses<br/>
A flower to resemble my scarlet ideal.<br/>
<br/>
Since, what for this fathomless heart I require<br/>
Is—Lady Macbeth you! in crime so dire;<br/>
—An Æschylus dream transposed from the South—<br/>
<br/>
Or thee, oh great "Night" of Michael-Angelo born,<br/>
Who so calmly thy limbs in strange posture hath drawn,<br/>
Whose allurements are framed for a Titan's mouth.<br/></p>
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