But Little Carmine Hath Her Face

But Little Carmine Hath Her Face - meaning Summary

Beauty as Self-display

This short lyric presents a speaker’s immediate impression of a figure called Little Carmine, whose modest appearance—an emerald-colored gown—serves only as background to a more striking quality: her beauty is essentially the love she shows. The poem suggests that attractiveness resides not in ornament but in the outward expression of affection, which in turn elicits the speaker’s own love. Concise and intimate, the piece frames beauty as an active, relational display rather than a static trait.