Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON THE PORTRAIT OF SHAKESPEARE by BEN JONSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: THIS FIGURE, THAT THOU HERE SEEST PUT
Last Line: NOT AT HIS PICTURE, BUT HIS BOOK.
Subject(s): BOOKS; DRAMATISTS; DROESHOUT, MARTIN; ENGRAVING & ENGRAVERS; PLAYS & PLAYWRIGHTS ; POETRY & POETS; SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616); WRITING & WRITERS; READING; DRAMATISTS;
THIS figure, that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut;
Wherein the Graver had a strife
With Nature to outdo the life:
O, could he but have drawn his wit
As well in brass, as he hath hit
His face; the Print would then surpass
All that was ever writ in brass.
But since he cannot, Reader, look
Not at his picture, but his book.


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