Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BEFORE A PAINTING, by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BEFORE A PAINTING, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
Last Line: The windows in some old cathedral dim.
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Paintings & Painters


I knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
What I beheld; nor by what laws of art
He had created life and love and heart
On canvas, from mere color, curve and line.
Silent I stood and made no move or sign;
Not with the crowd, but reverently apart;
Nor felt the power my rooted limbs to start,
But mutely gazed upon that face divine.

And over me the sense of beauty fell,
As music over a raptured listener to
The deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn;
Or as on one who kneels, his beads to tell,
There falls the aureate glory filtered through
The windows in some old cathedral dim.





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