Two pictures hung on the dingy wall
of a grand old Florentine hall-
One was a child of beauty rare
With a cherub face and golden hair;
The lovely look whose radiant eyes
Filled the soul with thoughts of Paradise.
The other was a visage vile
Marked with the lines of lust and guile,
A loathsome being, whose features fell
Brought to the soul weird thoughts of hell.
Side by side in their frames of gold,
Dingy and dusty and cracked and old
This is the solemn tale they told:
A youthful painter found one day,
In the streets of Rome, a child at play,
And moved by the beauty it bore,
The heavenly look that its features wore,
On canvas, radiant and grand,
He painted its face with a master hand.
Year after year on his wall it hung;
'Twas ever joyful and always young-
Driving away all thoughts of gloom
While the painter toiled in his dingy room.
Like an angel of light it met his gaze,
Bringing him dreams of his boyhood days,
Filling his soul with a sense of praise.
His raven ringlets grew thin and gray
His young ambition all passed away;
Yet he looked for years in many a place,
To find a contrast to that sweet face.
Through haunts of vice in the night he stayed
To find some ruin that crime had made.
At last in a prison cell he caught
A glimpse of the hideous fiend he sought.
On a canvas weird and wild but grand,
He painted the face with a master hand.
His task was done; 'twas a work sublime-
An angel of joy and a fiend of crime-
A lesson of life from the wrecks of time.
O Crime: with ruin thy road is strewn
The brightest beauty the world has known
Thy power has wasted, till in the mind
No trace of its presence is left behind.
The loathsome wretch in the dungeon low,
With a face of a fiend and a look of woe,
Ruined by revels of crime and sin,
A pitiful wreck of what might have been,
Hated and shunned, and without a home,
Was the CHILD that played in the streets of Rome.
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I cannot help but think of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Wilde and wonder if there was cross - fretilisation here.
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Two Pictures
From guest Connie (contact)
I first read this when I was 12. I'll be 49 in about a month. The other day I was reading it to my husband and had to have him finish teh last verse because I started crying again. Everytime I read this it gets me so choked up. Whoever this unknown writer was, was a literary master. His words have been touching souls for decades or centuries now. I'm an artist and this poem has driven me to paint two pictures and will donate them to our local police station. -
Gives me the picture of a person who was a pauper of sorts, who got arrested and then went to 'jail' and there he found something to draw on and he drew the person he would have been and he looks at himself as who he is. Two people, two different lives.
That's the impression I got from this piece, I am sure it's about something else, or similar to it, or whatever anyone above has stated.
A good piece by this Anonymous writer.
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Sort of a poetic combination of Wilde's "Dorian Gray" and Stevenson "Jekyll and Hyde." Also can be seen as a juxtaposition of potential and reality. And in the end, it is a nicely told story and well written.
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This was great. I have to applaud you on this... Keep up the great write from imagine27
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really enjoyed this work it was great.
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aoh the many things we face, and the many faces we wear as we wend our way thorugh life, and how sad that the same face that captured his inspirtions for so long, ended up captured as well in the end...very lovely tale and it does have an old world legend fel to it.....Artis
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Wow. This is very well writen. I like the way u write it in old style. You pick your words very carefully and i am impressed. Thanks for submitting such a wonderfully written poem. I definently enjoyed reading it
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Oh my Gosh!!! Did I read this right and the two pictures were of the same person as a child and a loathsome wretch when grown. This poem is a masterpiece of creative thought and written with a master pen in a sing song way that leads you down the page like being led by the hand of a little child in the First picture.
EXCELLENT
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This is a beautiful write. I will have to pay a visit to old poetry more often. I think this is pleasant.
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a grand od poem.I love the story that it tells.
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