Although the paintings of Jan Vermeer continue to be celebrated, very little is known about the painter himself - and even less about the women he painted. Who were they? What were their lives like? What thoughts, dreams, and desires might they yield up if we took the time to truly look at them?

In this elegant volume Marilyn Chandler McEntyre asks these very questions, and she teases out intriguing possibilities in twenty poems arranged side by side with color reproductions of the paintings that inspired them. McEntyre has chosen eighteen of Vermeer's famous women - including The Lacemaker, The Milkmaid, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and The Girl with a Red Hat - to wonder about.

Rich with imagined detail, each of these poems invites the reader to take a closer look at Vermeer's portraits, to celebrate not only Vermeer's artistry but also the significance of the women themselves. McEntyre thoughtfully imagines the personal lives of these women and attempts to capture what Vermeer himself saw in them - a contemplative exercise that illuminates the presence of grace in the ordinary moments of life.