Pictor Ignotus Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCBDEDEFGFGHIHIJKLK MNMNOPOPQRQRSTSTUVUW XYXYZA2ZA2B2C2B2D2ZE 2ZF2G2ZG2ZZZZZH2I2H2 I2ZJ2ZJ2| I could have painted pictures like that youth's | A |
| Ye praise so How my soul springs up No bar | B |
| Stayed me ah thought which saddens while it soothes | C |
| Never did fate forbid me star by star | B |
| To outburst on your night with all my gift | D |
| Of fires from God nor would my flesh have shrunk | E |
| From seconding my soul with eyes uplift | D |
| And wide to heaven or straight like thunder sunk | E |
| To the centre of an instant or around | F |
| Turned calmly and inquisitive to scan | G |
| The license and the limit space and bound | F |
| Allowed to Truth made visible in man | G |
| And like that youth ye praise so all I saw | H |
| Over the canvas could my hand have flung | I |
| Each face obedient to its passion's law | H |
| Each passion clear proclaimed without a tongue | I |
| Whether Hope rose at once in all the blood | J |
| A tip toe for the blessing of embrace | K |
| Or Rapture drooped the eyes as when her brood | L |
| Pull down the nesting dove's heart to its place | K |
| Or Confidence lit swift the forehead up | M |
| And locked the mouth fast like a castle braved | N |
| O human faces hath it spilt my cup | M |
| What did ye give me that I have not saved | N |
| Nor will I say I have not dreamed how well | O |
| Of going I in each new picture forth | P |
| As making new hearts beat and bosoms swell | O |
| To Pope or Kaiser East West South or North | P |
| Bound for the calmly satisfied great State | Q |
| Or glad aspiring little burgh it went | R |
| Flowers cast upon the car which bore the freight | Q |
| Through old streets named afresh from the event | R |
| Till it reached home where learned Age should greet | S |
| My face and Youth the star not yet distinct | T |
| Above his hair lie learning at my feet | S |
| Oh thus to live I and my picture linked | T |
| With love about and praise till life should end | U |
| And then not go to Heaven but linger here | V |
| Here on my earth earth's every man my friend | U |
| The thought grew frightful 'twas so wildly dear | W |
| But a voice changed it Glimpses of such sights | X |
| Have scared me like the revels through a door | Y |
| Of some strange house of idols at its rites | X |
| This world seemed not the world it was before | Y |
| Mixed with my loving trusting ones there trooped | Z |
| Who summoned those cold faces that begun | A2 |
| To press on me and judge me Though I stooped | Z |
| Shrinking as from the soldiery a nun | A2 |
| They drew me forth and spite of me enough | B2 |
| These buy and sell our pictures take and give | C2 |
| Count them for garniture and household stuff | B2 |
| And where they live needs must our pictures live | D2 |
| And see their faces listen to their prate | Z |
| Partakers of their daily pettiness | E2 |
| Discussed of This I love or this I hate | Z |
| This likes me more and this affects me less | F2 |
| Wherefore I chose my portion If at whiles | G2 |
| My heart sinks as monotonous I paint | Z |
| These endless cloisters and eternal aisles | G2 |
| With the same series Virgin Babe and Saint | Z |
| With the same cold calm beautiful regard | Z |
| At least no merchant traffics in my heart | Z |
| The sanctuary's gloom at least shall ward | Z |
| Vain tongues from where my pictures stand apart | Z |
| Only prayer breaks the silence of the shrine | H2 |
| While blackening in the daily candle smoke | I2 |
| They moulder on the damp wall's travertine | H2 |
| 'Mid echoes the light footstep never woke | I2 |
| So die my pictures surely gently die | Z |
| O youth men praise so holds their praise its worth | J2 |
| Blown harshly keeps the trump its golden cry | Z |
| Tastes sweet the water with such specks of earth | J2 |
Robert Browning
(1)
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About Pictor Ignotus
Pictor Ignotus is a poem by Robert Browning. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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