Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO MR. LUCAS, WRITTEN WHILST SITTING TO HIM FOR MY PORTRAIT, 1828, by MARY RUSSELL MITFORD Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Oh young and richly gifted! Born to claim Last Line: By the reflexion of their own pure light. Subject(s): Lucas, John (1807-1874); Models; Portraits | ||||||||
Oh young and richly gifted! born to claim No vulgar place amidst the sons of fame; With shapes of beauty haunting thee like dreams, And skill to realise Art's loftiest themes; How wearisome to thee the task must be To copy these coarse features painfully; Faded by time and paled by care, to trace The dim complexion of this homely face; And lend to a bent brow and anxious eye Thy patient toil, thine Art's high mastery. Yet by that Art, almost methinks divine, By touch and colour and the skilful line Which at a stroke can strengthen and refine, And mostly by the invisible influence Of thine own spirit, gleams of thought and sense Shoot o'er the care-worn forehead, and illume The heavy eye, and break the leaden gloom: Even as the sun-beams on the rudest ground Fling their illusive glories wide around, And make the dullest scene of nature bright By the reflexion of their own pure light. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AQUATINT FRAMED IN GOLD by AMY LOWELL PORTRAIT OF X (III) by THOMAS LUX PORTRAIT OF THE GREAT WHITE HUNTER FOXHUNTING IN THE ABSENCE OF BIG... by CLARENCE MAJOR PORTRAIT OF A MAN by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER PORTRAITE DE L'ARTISTE by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER FAMILY PORTRAIT by KENNETH PATCHEN FEMALE PORTRAIT, 19TH CENTURY by TOMAS TRANSTROMER TO MY MOTHER SLEEPING by MARY RUSSELL MITFORD |
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