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...OVERHEARD ON A SALTMARSH by HAROLD MONRO A GOOD PLAY by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON LITTLE JESUS by FRANCIS THOMPSON EFFICIENCY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS VERSES TO AN INFANT by BERNARD BARTON |