Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET FOR A PICTURE, by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE


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SONNET FOR A PICTURE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: That nose is out of drawing. With a gasp
Last Line: But may be ravenously unripped in hell?
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Paintings & Painters; Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882)


THAT nose is out of drawing. With a gasp,
She pants upon the passionate lips that ache
With the red drain of her own mouth, and make
A monochord of colour. Like an asp,
One lithe lock wriggles in his rutilant grasp.
Her bosom is an oven of myrrh, to bake
Love's white warm shewbread to a browner cake.
The lock his fingers clench has burst its hasp.
The legs are absolutely abominable.
Ah! what keen overgust of wild-eyed woes
Flags in that bosom, flushes in that nose?
Nay! Death sets riddles for desire to spell,
Responsive. What red hem earth's passion sews,
But may be ravenously unripped in hell?





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