The Statue and the Bust

"They saw how the blush of the bride increased—/ They felt by its beats her heart expand—"

There’s a poem by Robert Browning, “The Statue and the Bust”, which is pretty long but has an amazing story. Here’s a synopsis I found in the endnotes of the Oxford Classics edition of Far from the Madding Crowd:

The Great-Duke Ferdinand caught sight of a beautiful lady just before her marriage to another. They were so attracted to each other that, after the marriage, she ever after watched him from her window. When they grew old, she had a figure of her face made and set in the window, and he a statue of himself in the square below, so that each would see the forms of their youth, when their love was fresher.

And here’s the initial bit, where Ferdinand first shows up:

There’s a palace in Florence, the world knows well,
And a statue watches it from the square,
And this story of both do our townsmen tell.

Ages ago, a lady there,
At the farthest window facing the East,
Asked, “Who rides by with the royal air?”

The bridesmaids’ prattle around her ceased;
She leaned forth, one on either hand;
They saw how the blush of the bride increased—

They felt by its beats her heart expand—
As one at each ear and both in a breath
Whispered, “The Great-Duke Ferdinand.”