• There is delight in singing, though none hear
    Beside the singer; and there is delight
    In praising, though the praiser sit alone
    And see the praised far off him, far above.
    Shakespeare is not our poet, but the world’s,
    Therefore on him no speech! and brief for thee,
    Browning! Since Chaucer was alive and hale,
    No man hath walked along our...

  • First bring me Raffael, who alone hath seen
    In all her purity heaven’s virgin queen,
    Alone hath felt true beauty; bring me then
    Titian, ennobler of the noblest men;
    And next the sweet Correggio, nor chastise
    His little Cupids for those wicked eyes.
    I want not Rubens’s pink puffy bloom,
    Nor Rembrandt’s glimmer in a dusty room.
    With...