The Study of Poetry • Paragraph 1217
Stage 1 of 6

Read it through once

Wherever a fresco peels and drops, Wherever an outline weakens and wanes Till the latest life in the painting stops, Stands One whom each fainter pulse-tick pains: One, wishful each scrap should clutch the brick, Each tinge not wholly escape the plaster, --A lion who dies of an ass’s kick, The wronged great soul of an ancient Master.