Here is Elinor Wylie's own "verse portrait," printed in
The New Yorker:
"She gives the false impression that she's pretty
Because she has a soft, deceptive skin
Saved from her childhood; yet it seems a pity
That she should be as vain of this as sin;
Her might might bloom, she might reform the world
In those lost hours while her hair is curled."
These are remarks made about Wylie's appearance by the American author and poet, Louis Untermeyer*. In this description, he compares Wylie's features to those of Queen Nefertiti:
"Here were the same imperious brows; the high cheekbones and the scooped-out cheeks; the proud and narrow nose; the small taut mouth; the carved and resolute chin; the long smooth column of the throat.....The eyes were bright and hypnotic hazel--witch hazel, it seemed to me. To offset the stare and the general effect of stiffness, her hair was loose and lively."
Wylie described her hair as "lion-colored." She was known to be vain, and wasn't altogether certain whether she preferred her intellect or her beauty to be admired more. Shortly after recovering from a 1924 hospital visit, Louis Untermeyer said to her, "You look particularly lovely tonight." Wylie, notorious for misinterpreting compliments, shot back, "Have you ever seen me looking any other way?"
~Titania
*
Louis Untermeyer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia