The Hidden Beholder: viewing Vermeer's 'girl Reading A Letter By An Open Window' Poem by Christian Muller

You trapped me in this breathless room - with light
That danced upon your ancient youthful face.
No invite I received to see this sight
That you have set before my eyes. I brace
Myself for you to break your fixed gaze
Away from your limp page, that now lies dead
In your soft girlish hands. When will you raise
Your ageless brow to ponder what was said
Within the words that have three hundred years
Of prying eyes perplexed? What would I do
If you beyond this half-drawn curtain saw
The shadowed man, who quakes in mortal fear
Of your upturned immortal eyes that you
Have kept from him, and will forever more.