Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO TINTORETTO IN VENICE, by ALICE MEYNELL Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Master, thy enterprise Last Line: And shadow us, o thou tower! For thou shalt stand. Alternate Author Name(s): Meynell, Wilfrid, Mrs.; Thompson, Alice Christina Subject(s): Light; Paintings And Painters; Tintoretto [jacobo Robusti] (1518-1594) | ||||||||
The Art of Painting had in the Primitive years looked with the light, not towards it. Before Tintoretto's date, however, many painters practised shadows and lights, and turned more or less sunwards; but he set the figure between himself and a full sun. His work is to be known in Venice by the splendid trick of an occluded sun and a shadow thrown straight at the spectator. MASTER, thy enterprise, Magnificent, magnanimous, was well done, Which seized the head of Art, and turned her eyes -- The simpleton -- and made her front the sun. Long had she sat content, Her young unlessoned back to a morning gay, To a solemn noon, to a cloudy firmament, And looked upon a world in gentle day. But thy imperial call Bade her to stand with thee and breast the light, And therefore face the shadows, mystical, Sombre, translucent, vestiges of night, Yet glories of the day. Eagle! we know thee by thy undaunted eyes Sky-ward, and by thy glooms; we know thy way Ambiguous, and those halo-misted dyes. Thou Cloud, the bridegroom's friend (The bridegroom sun)! Master, we know thy sign: A mystery of hues world-without-end; And hide-and-seek of gamesome and divine; Shade of the noble head Cast hitherward upon the noble breast; Human solemnities thrice hallowed; The haste to Calvary, the Cross at rest. Look sunward, Angel, then! Carry the fortress-heavens by that hand; Still be the interpreter of suns to men; And shadow us, O thou Tower! for thou shalt stand. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GHOST OF TINTORETTO'S DAUGHTER by RITA SIGNORELLI-PAPPAS I AM THE WAY' by ALICE MEYNELL A DEAD HARVEST (IN KENSINGTON GARDENS) by ALICE MEYNELL A FATHER OF WOMEN: AD SOROREM E. B. by ALICE MEYNELL A LETTER FROM A GIRL TO HER OWN OLD AGE by ALICE MEYNELL A POET'S FANCIES: 8. THE MODERN POET; A SONG OF DERIVATIONS by ALICE MEYNELL CHRIST IN THE UNIVERSE by ALICE MEYNELL |
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