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Poems

By W. C. Bennett: New ed
  

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[Nor, Alchemists, turning to gold the lead]
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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[Nor, Alchemists, turning to gold the lead]

Nor, Alchemists, turning to gold the lead
Of my dull'd days, alone your presence brings
Frescoed and aureoled saints about whom clings
The reverence that we owe their limners dead;
To later triumphs are your names, too, wed
In my glad thought—names that Fame softlier sings
As yet than Leonardo's; her trump rings
But with the centuries-aged; yet theirs are read
Clearlier and clearlier, as the fresh years come,
On her throng'd tablets. As I think of you,
Memory of these we love so is not dumb;
I look upon the lives that Gainsborough drew;
Reynolds is with me, and, lo! I become
Still'd into awe as Turner's world I view.