The title sets up the scene: an artist who can barely afford to eat sits studying his model. The poem is only three short lines, and it turns on one contrast. Her body is "a good ship," something sturdy, well made, able to carry a person somewhere. His own body is "a gilded well," which is a stranger and sadder image. A well is deep and hollow, and the gilding suggests a bright surface laid over an emptiness.
The speaker seems to be the artist, and what he feels looks like a mix of admiration and hunger. He sees her as whole and seaworthy, while he feels like something gleaming on the outside but empty within. The "all day looking" suggests long, patient attention, but also a kind of longing. The mood is quiet, wistful, and a little wry. The poem hints that making art can look glamorous while the person doing it is running on nothing.