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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BEFORE A PAINTING by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: I KNEW NOT WHO HAD WROUGHT WITH SKILL SO FINE
Last Line: THE WINDOWS IN SOME OLD CATHEDRAL DIM.
Subject(s): ART & ARTISTS; PAINTINGS & PAINTERS;
I knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
What I beheld; nor by what laws of art
He had created life and love and heart
On canvas, from mere color, curve and line.
Silent I stood and made no move or sign;
Not with the crowd, but reverently apart;
Nor felt the power my rooted limbs to start,
But mutely gazed upon that face divine.

And over me the sense of beauty fell,
As music over a raptured listener to
The deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn;
Or as on one who kneels, his beads to tell,
There falls the aureate glory filtered through
The windows in some old cathedral dim.



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