Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LINES TO A STUPID PICTURE, by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LINES TO A STUPID PICTURE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Five geese, -- landscape damp and wild
Last Line: In most unhopeful pictures.
Alternate Author Name(s): Dobson, Austin
Subject(s): Paintings & Painters


' -- the music of the moon
Sleeps in the plain eggs of the nightingale.' -- AYLMER'S FIELD.

FIVE geese, -- landscape damp and wild, --
A stunted, not too pretty, child,
Beneath a battered gingham;
Such things, to say the least, require
A Muse of more-than-average Fire
Effectively to sing 'em.

And yet -- Why should they? Souls of mark
Have sprung from such; -- e'en Joan of Arc
Had scarce a grander duty;
Not always ('tis a maxim trite)
From righteous sources comes the right, --
From beautiful, the beauty.

Who shall decide where seed is sown?
Maybe some priceless germ was blown
To this unwholesome marish;
(And what must grow will still increase,
Though cackled round by half the geese
And ganders in the parish.)

Maybe this homely face may hide
A Stael before whose mannish pride
Our frailer sex shall tremble;
Perchance this audience anserine
May hiss (O fluttering Muse of mine!) --
May hiss -- a future Kemble!

Or say the gingham shadows o'er
An undeveloped Hannah More! --
A latent Mrs. Trimmer!!
Who shall affirm it? -- who deny? --
Since of the truth nor you nor I
Can catch the faintest glimmer?

So then -- Caps off, my Masters all;
Reserve your final word, -- recall
Your all-too-hasty strictures;
Caps off, I say, for Wisdom sees
Undreamed potentialities
In most unhopeful pictures.





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