"It's such a shame," she thinks, "that in
Their long lives and studies They
Have not known great art."
But, her villanelles remind her,
nobody who is truly great
Is ever understood in her time.
Better to wait, muse the elegies, until
The hundred-year anniversary
Of your death: see what They think then.
By then, Mistress, you will be so fine, so carved
Of stars and draped in ribbons that even They
Will smile.
