Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

On being told that Charles Dickens had said that “the bust of Clytie must have been modelled from a real Greek girl, or it could not have been so beautiful.”

“Should not the truest Art interpret rather than daguerreotype?”

IN THE DULWICH GALLERY—BEFORE GUIDO'S “ST. SEBASTIAN.”

IN LONDON—AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY—BEFORE MURILLO'S “HOLY FAMILY.”

ON A VIOLET-STAND.

AT ROME—FROM THE HILL OF THE CAPITOL.

ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE COLISEUM.

WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

ROBERT BROWNING.

BEFORE WILKIE'S “COLUMBUS.”

AT SOUTH KENSINGTON—IN THE TURNER GALLERY.

AT DULWICH.

IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL—BEFORE MICHAEL ANGELO'S “LAST JUDGMENT.”

AT DULWICH.

AT ANTWERP—BEFORE RUBENS' “DESCENT FROM THE CROSS.”

[Venice! Dear friends, how comes she to your eyes?]

[On the Rialto, too, your steps have been]

[Ah, those Italian lakes! My town-dull'd eyes]

[When the laburnum droops its golden rain]

BEFORE THE DULWICH GALLERY.

IN THE CAPITOL—BEFORE THE FAUN OF “PRAXITELES,”

IN THE VATICAN—BEFORE THE APOLLO BELVEDERE.

AT THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM—BEFORE “THE TURNERS.”

AT FLORENCE—BEFORE THE “VENUS DE MEDICI.”

IN THE VATICAN—BEFORE THE FRESCOES OF THE “STANZE DI RAFFAELLO.”

IN ITALY—1860.

[So this is yours, our Wordsworth's pictured face]

[What! Gad's Hill's haunted greenness you have seen.]

IN THE DULWICH GALLERY—BEFORE MURILLO'S “FLOWER-GIRL.”

THACKERAY.

ITALY.

MRS. BROWNING.

AT MILAN—IN THE CONVENT OF THE MADONNA DELLE GRAZIE.

EDGAR ALLAN POE.

AT ALFRED TENNYSON'S.

AT ROME—IN THE FORUM.

IN THE TOWER OF LONDON.

WRITTEN IN NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE'S “TRANSFORMATION.”

II.

III.

JOHN RUSKIN.

II.

III.

IN PARIS—AT THE LOUVRE—BEFORE MURILLO'S “IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.”

IN LONDON—BEFORE HOLMAN HUNT'S “FINDING OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE.”

[And of our great ones, him you should have known]

AT ROME—BEFORE ST. PETER'S.

AT ROME—IN ST. PETER'S.

IN LONDON—BEFORE ST. PAUL'S.

IN LONDON—IN TRAFALGAR-SQUARE—BEFORE THE STATUE OF GENERAL SIR CHARLES JAMES NAPIER.

GARIBALDI.

AT FLORENCE—IN FRA ANGELICO'S CELL IN THE CONVENT OF ST. MARK.

AT ROME—IN THE FORUM.

ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF TASSO.

FLORENCE.

ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF DANTE.

AT FLORENCE—IN SANTA CROCE—BY THE TOMB OF MACHIAVELLI.

AT PISA—IN THE CAMPO SANTO—BEFORE THE FRESCOES AND TOMB OF BENOZZO GOZZOLI.

MILAN, 1860.

IN LONDON—BEFORE MR. CROPSEY'S “AUTUMN ON THE HUDSON.”

TO MARY HOWITT.

TO MARY RUSSELL MITFORD.

TO KEATS.

TO LEIGH HUNT.

A RECOLLECTION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF “ION.”

WRITTEN IN MACAULAY'S “LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME.”

MOTHERWELL'S GRAVE.

AT ROME—ON THE PINCIAN HILL.

[Would God had homed me near your fireside, friends]

[Yours be a life of pleasure, lapp'd in ease]

BEFORE MR. JOHN RUSKIN'S “TURNERS,” AT DENMARK HILL.

WRITTEN IN DR. HOLMES'S “ELSIE VENNER.”

WRITTEN IN “EMERSON'S ESSAYS.”

II.

III.

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

497

On being told that Charles Dickens had said that “the bust of Clytie must have been modelled from a real Greek girl, or it could not have been so beautiful.”

Yes, so, great master of our smiles and tears,
So lived a real Clytie in the far past,
When grew the radiance that shall ever last,
And Athens' grandeur glorified the years.
Art then is highest when it humbly clears
The blots by life on perfect nature cast,
Gives her perfection, not by a line o'erpast,
And to mar that still reverently fears.
O Lady of the West, who art as fair
As she was, and wast born 'neath rule as free,
Perchance those eyes, in marble down-droop'd there,
Lit Salamis' red victors from the sea,
Or dropp'd from Alcibiades' bold stare.
So, snatch'd from time and death, you, friend, should be.