Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO CERTAIN MODERN PAINTERS by YORK SAMPSON

First Line: GO, PAINT A PICTURE OF THE SKY
Last Line: INSTEAD OF PAINTING AS THINGS REALLY ARE?
Subject(s): PAINTINGS AND PAINTERS;

Go, paint a picture of the sky
At twilight when the grosbeaks fly
To seek topmost perches overhead
To requiem the day that's dead.
Or, get in color green sea splendor
On foggy moon when mist is vendor
Of gauzy wreaths above the surges,
Where nostal run the tidal dirges!

Go, paint the living spark of dawn,
When night, like coaches slowly drawn,
Draws starry panes to rest a while,
Until another day shall smile. ...

Oh, wasters, ye, who think ye rule
With skill taught in a modern school:
What now remains of vital things
In these colored sling-shot flings?
You merely air much shoddy strife,
When simple things are really life;
You dazzle, where the King of Light
Goes softly for the shades of might.
You shriek where whisperings were deft,
And still you have wild shoutings left!
You kick and squirm in ardor made
To hide the fact a spade's a spade.

Oh, sons, what is there left to learn
When knowledge sours in this churn
Of being "mauve," and thought "bizarre,"
Instead of painting as things really are?



Home: PoetryExplorer.net