The Bijou;
or Annual of Literature and the Arts
compiled by William Fraser
London: William Pickering,
1828
pp. pp. 139-143
LAWRENCE! — although the Muse and I have parted, | 1 |
(She to her airy heights, and I to toil, | 2 |
Not discontent, nor wroth, nor gloomy-hearted, | 3 |
Because I now must till a rugged soil,) — | 4 |
Although self-banished from the peerless Muse, | 5 |
Banish'd from Art's gay groups and blending hues, | 6 |
I still gaze on thy lines, where Beauty reigns, | 7 |
With pleasure which rewards mine errant pains. | 8 |
Thus, though I con no more the common page, | 9 |
With learned Milton still and Shakespeare sage | 10 |
I commune, when the labouring day is over, | 11 |
Filled with a deep delight; like some true lover, | 12 |
Whom frowning fate may not entirely sever | 13 |
From her whose love, perhaps, is lost for ever! | 14 |
Even now thy potent art witches my sight. | 15 |
I see thee again, (with all my old delight,) — | 16 |
With rainbows o'er thy beaming figures flung, | 17 |
Still bright, and like Lyaeus, "ever young." | 18 |
For thou, as Raffaelle and Correggio smiled | 19 |
On beauty in the bud, and made the child | 20 |
Immortal as the man of thoughtful brow, | 21 |
By dint of their sweet power, — so dost thou. | 22 |
And who, whilst those fair matchless children1 are, | 23 |
Which, with thy radiant pencil, like a star, | 24 |
Thou broughtest into light and pictured grace, | 25 |
Shall dare assign to thee a second place? | 26 |
Yet,—thou so lov'st the art thou dost profess, | 27 |
(I know,) that thou would'st rather be deemed less | 28 |
Than thine own stature, so that they who first | 29 |
Gave art nobility, and burst | 30 |
Like dawn upon the world to shine and reign, | 31 |
Sole homage of mens' souls may still retain. | 32 |
— With whom dost thou now commune, — night by night, | 33 |
When Nature, lady thine, withdraws her light, | 34 |
And even thou must cease to charm all time? | 35 |
Is it with Michael and his stern-sublime? | 36 |
With Rembrandt's riddles dark, — a "mighty maze?" | 37 |
Caracci's learned lines? — or Rubens' blaze? | 38 |
With hoary Leonardo, great and wise? | 39 |
With Parma's painters and their angel eyes? | 40 |
Or Raffaelle sent us down from out the sunny skies? | 41 |
[Page 143]
— How long is't Lawrence, since this2 creature young, | 103 |
Out of thy sportive mood so bravely sprung | 104 |
Into bright life, and took his stand in joy | 105 |
With things that Time shall never dare destroy? — | 106 |
— What matter? — he is here, and here shall be, | 107 |
A shape to speak, in far futurity, | 108 |
Of thy rare merits to the Muse of Song, | 109 |
When I and all these rhymes have vanished long! | 110 |
1. [Note to "A Familiar Epistle to Sir Thomas Lawrence":] The children of Mr. Calmeady. [Fraser and/or Author] Back
2. [Note to "A Familiar Epistle to Sir Thomas Lawrence":] See the accompanying Engraving. [Bijou Editor, William Fraser] Back