AN artist @3manqué.@1 Of the finest, fine. Handsome. Upstanding. Both ridiculous And admirable. Touched with the divine Spark, but foredoomed to daily, tedious Tasks ... which he does with natural dignity. Painter. Musician. Poet. All these three Persons in this one man—potentially. Gentle and strong. Staunch both of soul and will. Pretending to regard with scorn and hate God-given gifts which he has had to kill Within himself ... in order to fulfil Family duties, forced on him by Fate. Dreaming of compositions never played, Of songs unwritten, pictures un-portrayed. In him the essential man essays to express The inhibited artist through strange tricks of dress, (Which make him, on the surface, seem a fop) Or in smartening up the windows of his shop— An ironmonger's—with staged scenes, that show Something which has not ceased to gleam and glow ... An instinct which, innate and uppermost, Impels him to create at any cost ... Such he whom, in this one-horse town, I find Friendliest, kindliest, manliest ... first in heart and mind. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ELEPHANT by HILAIRE BELLOC CONTRA MORTEM: THE COMING OF SNOW by HAYDEN CARRUTH QUESTION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON CORPORATE ENTITY by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH SURFACE AND STRUCTURE: BONAVENTURE HOTEL, LOS ANGELES by KAREN SWENSON |