 | Voices and visions |  |
9
PORTRAITS
I
THE PRIG
Though genius clad you with a golden mist,
For him your verses would but lamely stammer,
If in their texture should by chance exist
One least unholy blemish of bad grammar.
For him your verses would but lamely stammer,
If in their texture should by chance exist
One least unholy blemish of bad grammar.
Vainly, for him, the powers you would unite
Of Shakespeare, Virgil, Dante, Lope de Vega,
If, quoting Greek, you once presumed to write
An omicron in place of an omega.
Of Shakespeare, Virgil, Dante, Lope de Vega,
If, quoting Greek, you once presumed to write
An omicron in place of an omega.
II
A FAILURE
With all the Egyptian dynasties he copes
Undaunted, and the whole long line of Popes.
Undaunted, and the whole long line of Popes.
To nimblest English, if the mood may please,
He turns the tough Greek of Thucydides.
He turns the tough Greek of Thucydides.
Than he no pundit wiser views may give
On Sanskrit and the Æolic optative.
On Sanskrit and the Æolic optative.
10
With ease his memory, name by name, can shoot
Backward from Queen Victoria to Canute.
Backward from Queen Victoria to Canute.
Yet still, at fifty-seven, he sighs and frets,
Pinioned by poverty and dogged by debts.
Pinioned by poverty and dogged by debts.
III
A KIND OF HYPOCRITE
He grips your hand with hearty and fervid pressure;
A wealth of candour beams from his full smile;
And yet no Machiavelli could outmeasure
The compass of his ambuscaded guile.
A wealth of candour beams from his full smile;
And yet no Machiavelli could outmeasure
The compass of his ambuscaded guile.
Others by artful flatteries may caress you;
Not he, thank heaven, with warm phrase blunt and terse!
And yet, his most ingenuous-toned ‘God bless you’
Can cloak the sleeping scorpion of a curse.
Not he, thank heaven, with warm phrase blunt and terse!
And yet, his most ingenuous-toned ‘God bless you’
Can cloak the sleeping scorpion of a curse.
Thus brazenly through life, its one most daring
And dangerous masquerader, doth he go;
Frank as Jack Falstaff in his outward bearing,
But wily as Mephistopheles below!
And dangerous masquerader, doth he go;
Frank as Jack Falstaff in his outward bearing,
But wily as Mephistopheles below!
IV
AN OLD LADY
As bold October checks his gaudier tintsFrosting some sheltered tree with tenderer trace,
So, mild of mood, relentless age imprints
With delicate blight her pink autumnal face.
11
V
A YOUNG GIRL
Her mouth demure, with that shy smile it housesBelow the silvery dusk of those deep eyes,
Hath semblance of a curled wild-rose that drowses,
Watched by mesmeric stars in summer skies.
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