Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONNET TO A PAINTER ATTEMPTING DELIA'S PORTRAIT, by ROBERT SOUTHEY Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Rash painter! Canst thou give the orb of day Last Line: Fairer than venus, daughter of the sea. Variant Title(s): Sonnets Of Abel Shufflebottom: 2 Subject(s): Beauty; Disdain; Mythology - Classical; Paintings And Painters; Sonnet (as Literary Form); Venus (goddess); Women; Scorn | ||||||||
RASH painter! canst thou give the orb of day In all his noontide glory? or portray The diamond, that athwart the taper'd hall Flings the rich flashes of its dazzling light? Even if thine art could boast such magic might, Yet if it strove to paint my angel's eye, Here it perforce must fail. Cease! lest I call Heaven's vengeance on thy sin: must thou be told The crime it is to paint divinity? Rash painter! should the world her charms behold, Dim and defiled, as there they needs must be, They to their old idolatry would fall, And bend before her form the pagan knee. Fairer than Venus, daughter of the sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOR MILAREPA, IN RUSE, ON PAPER by NORMAN DUBIE TWO WOMEN ON THE POTOMAC HIGHWAY by NORMAN DUBIE TO THE NECROPHILE by WALTER CONRAD ARENSBERG HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 13 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 14 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH TO A PHOTOGRAPHER by BERTON BRALEY ANTINOMY by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE VOICES OF SCORN by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES TO THE TUNE 'IN FAITH I CANNOT KEEP MY FATHER'S SHEEP' by JOHN HALL (1627-1656) BISHOP BRUNO by ROBERT SOUTHEY |
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