I had been reading what you have written of your idleness, When I came upon certain worthier selections From the month's work of our industrious versifiers -- Those who bring their ingenious tapestries to such soft perfection, Borrowing majesty from a true likeness to natural splendor: Tracery of branches etched upon a cold sky, a leaf, a flower. "But what," I then said to myself, "of him who goes, "Himself surpassing flowers, a flower in that peculiar way which the choice follows?" For certainly they take their daring in words carrying splendor, And certainly his verse is crimson when they speak of the rose. So I come deliberately to the most exquisite praise I have imagined of any living thing -- which is now manifest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DIRGE IN WOODS by GEORGE MEREDITH SONNET: 98 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE TO MUSIC; A FRAGMENT by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY EPIGRAM ON THE COUNTESS OF SOMERSET'S PICTURE by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) FERISHTAH'S FANCIES by ROBERT BROWNING UTOPIA by ROBERT JONES BURDETTE |