Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BEGINNINGS; FOR ROSSETTI'S FIRST PAINTING, by FORD MADOX FORD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BEGINNINGS; FOR ROSSETTI'S FIRST PAINTING, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Whether the beginnings of things notable
Last Line: And yet—it's just a question.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hueffer, Ford Hermann; Hueffer, Ford Madox
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882)


WHETHER the beginnings of things notable
Have in them anything worth noting.
Whether an acorn's worth the thinking of
Or eagle's egg suggests the sweep of wings in the clear blue,
Is just an idle question.

There's this:
If you should hold the acorn 'twixt your fingers,
You'll conjure up an oak maybe,
A great gnarled trunk, criss-crossed and twisting branches
And quivering of leaves.
Or if the egg lies in the hollow of your hand,
And the possessor says, "It is an eagle's."
You'll deem you're looking up into high heaven,
And see, far, far above you,
Leisurely circling, now amongst the clouds, now against the sun,
A careless span of pinions;
You'll see, maybe, in short, such oaks and eagle-flights
As never were, save in an idler's dream.
But then again:
An acorn's just an acorn, food for swine, and never
(The chances are so great, so very great against it),
Never will become a tempest-breasting oak.

And then this eagle's egg,
It's blown and empty of its contents,
And just reposes on its cotton wool
In a collector's box.
So with these sketches:
Maybe you'll let them trick you into dreaming
A hundred masterpieces:
Halls full of never-to-be-equalled brush work:
Or let the music of a witching name beguile you
To the remembrance of a master's sonnets.
Or you may say, with just a tilting of the nose towards heaven:

"The thing's amiss—it's worthless,
We've seen a daub as good
Hang flapping unobserved in such a High Street,
Decked with the faded, weather-beaten effigy
Of so-and-so of noble memory—
The thing's amiss, it's worthless."

And yet—it's just a question.





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