Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE DEAD PAINTER, by VIRGINIA TAYLOR MCCORMICK Poet's Biography First Line: Day after day he sat beneath these eaves Last Line: Whose vision holds a moment, not eternity. Subject(s): Art & Artists; Death; Paintings And Painters; Vision; Dead, The | ||||||||
Day after day he sat beneath these eaves Daubing colours on a canvas. Here He dreamed dreams of a time, Distant and far too dear, When men should know him for the artist That he was; when little feet, Expensively shod, should clatter on his stair; Swirl of silk, heavy odours of furs Rouse him to knowledge, intimate and sweet, That beauty waited with sleek, dark hair, Heavy white lids, perhaps a touch of kohl, And eyes whose depths an artist dare not plumb. Yes, beauty waited on his stair to beg That he would sell this tiny sketch; See, there it is, with evening mist Rosy and chrome, Splashed by a dead eternalist Who forgot the transiency of art And dreamed, yes, dreamed of beauty and of fame: Of that great picture which would place his name Above that of his fellows. . . . Now he is dead These two days and none knew him gone. His eyes are void and his dreams snuffed out. Pick up the dusty little canvas; Beauty will never know he saw her sleek dark head Outside his door and made his soul the pawn For her sweet satisfaction. Let us go out into the sunshine Where we may corral a swift reaction From this mood of dreams. The painter is dead. Sweep up his broken tubes of lake and gold, His palette with its dull patinas, His canvases with green and nacre splashes. None will ever know his brief dream's end. He has eternity in his cold heart And we, -- we take the way that seems More transient than before. We must forget the painter; he is dead, And beauty with her sleek dark head May wait upon some stair for you and me, Whose vision holds a moment, not eternity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND BELINDA by VIRGINIA TAYLOR MCCORMICK |
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