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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE LION'S HEAD by THOMAS HOOD

Poet Analysis

First Line: COME, TAKE THY PENCIL - PAINT MY LOVE
Last Line: SWEET TALE OF LOVE, &C., &C.
Subject(s): PAINTINGS & PAINTERS;

COME, take thy pencil -- paint my love
More tender than most tender dove;
Suffuse her cheeks with that warm glow
Would fain on lover hope bestow;
And make it frequent @3go and come@1
Back to and from its sighful home.
Lay on her @3tongue the tone of truth,@1
The Vesper Hymn of virgin youth.
She loves each eve, in pious praise,
To lisp to Sol's declining rays;
And hide that song from vulgar men
Within its own most hallow'd pen,
By double row of pillars, chaste
As Dian in the @3moral waste@1 [&c.].
From those lips @3let odours breathe;@1
Round them @3all my kisses wreathe.@1
In her fond voluptuous chin
Mould a dimple, hearts to @3gin;@1
And make thy magic art uprear
A heartsease smile behind each tear [&c.].
Give to her feet the airy motion
Of sunbeams trembling on the ocean
Lay her white fingers on a harp
Of gold, the power of gloom to warp.
And @3if thou canst,@1 in its warm nest
Paint, paint the heart beneath the breast;
Make visible its million springs,
Nor snap one of its thousand strings;
Depict it in a tear-wove guise
Floating upon a sea of sighs,
Its hundred ears inclined to one
Sweet tale of love, &c., &c.



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