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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE KING'S PICTURE, by HELEN LOUISE BARRON BOSTWICK First Line: The king from the council chamber Last Line: "the form of the god within." Subject(s): Paintings & Painters | |||
THE king from the council chamber Came, weary and sore of heart; He called to Iliff, the painter, And spoke to him thus apart: I'm sickened of the faces ignoble, Hypocrites, cowards, and knaves; I shall shrink in their shrunken measure, Chief slave in a realm of slaves. Paint me a true man's picture, Gracious, and wise, and good. Dowered with the strength of heroes And the beauty of womanhood. It shall hang in my inmost chamber, That, thither when I retire, It may fill my soul with its grandeur, "And warm it with sacred fire." So the artist painted the picture, And it hung in the palace hall; Never a thing so lovely Had garnished the stately wall. The king, with head uncovered, Gazed on it with rapt delight, Till it suddenly wore strange meaning -- Baffled his questioning sight. For the form was the supplest courtier's, Perfect in every limb; But the bearing was that of the henchman Who filled the flagons for him; The brow was a priest's, who pondered His parchment early and late; The eye was the wandering minstrel's, Who sang at the palace gate. The lips, half sad and half mirthful, With a fitful trembling grace, Were the very lips of a woman He had kissed in the market-place; But the smiles which her curves transfigured, As a rose with its shimmer of dew, Was the smile of the wife who loved him, Queen Ethelyn, good and true. Then, "Learn, O King," said the artist, "This truth that the picture tells -- That in every form of the human Some hint of the highest dwells; That, scanning each living temple For the place that the veil is thin, We may gather by beautiful glimpses The form of the God within." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...1801: AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE ENVOY TO CONSTANTINOPLE by RICHARD HOWARD VENETIAN INTERIOR, 1889 by RICHARD HOWARD THERE IS A GOLD LIGHT IN CERTAIN OLD PAINTINGS by DONALD JUSTICE DUTCH INTERIORS by JANE KENYON INVITATION TO A PAINTER: 3 by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM THE CHINA PAINTERS by TED KOOSER ELEGY FOR SOL LEWITT by ANN LAUTERBACH ON THE SEPARATION OF ADAM AND EVE by TIMOTHY LIU MY AIN COUNTRIE by MARY LEE DEMAREST |
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