Explore "Lines Suggested by a Picture of Two Females by Leonardo da Vinci" by Charles Lamb on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The lady Blanche, regardless of all her lovers' fears, / To the Ursuline convent hastens, and long the abbess hears. / "O Blanche, my child, repent ye of the courtly life ye lead. " / Blanche looked on a rosebud, and little seem'd to heed.
She looked on the rosebud, she looked round and thought / On all her heart had whisper'd, and all the Nun had taught. / "I am worshipped by lovers, and brightly shines my fame, / All Christendom resoundeth the noble Blanche's name.
Nor shall I quickly wither like the rosebud from the tree, / My queen-like graces shining when my beauty's gone from me.
But when the sculptured marble is raised o'er my head, / And the matchless Blanche lies lifeless among the noble dead, / This saintly lady abbess hath made me justly fear / It nothing will avail me that I was worshipp'd here. "