Classic Poem

ENGLAND AND ART

Be true to Art and Beauty. Milton's creed,
Coldly sublime, grasps not with equal span
The whole of Nature, or the whole of man:
Not by such dreams now prosper or succeed
Nations, whose souls and dawning spirits need
Food other than pale legends Puritan.
Through warmer veins the English red blood ran
When Shakespeare's fire linked thought to ardent deed.

From France and Italy learn the creed of Greece
Renascent. Learn that form is still divine;
Yea, that God's spirit speaks through curve and line
Of shoulder, — that through glory and subtle scent
Of woman's hair angels breathe balm and peace,
On things unutterably pure intent.