The Artist
sonnet 1.
The Artist - form Summary
Sonnet of Constrained Creation
This sonnet frames the poet as an artist whose work is limited by what the subject contains. Using the marble-block metaphor, the speaker argues that an intellect and hand can only reveal what already lies hidden in the material. Addressing a beloved who holds both love and death, the poet concedes that his imagination yields only images of death. The form concentrates a single paradox about creative possibility and the subject’s inward power.
Read Complete AnalysesNothing the greatest artist can conceive That every marble block doth not confine Within itself; and only its design The hand that follows intellect can achieve. The ill I flee, the good that I believe, In thee, fair lady, lofty and divine, Thus hidden lie; and so that death be mine Art, of desired success, doth me bereave. Love is not guilty, then, nor thy fair face, Nor fortune, cruelty, nor great disdain, Of my disgrace, nor chance, nor destiny, If in thy heart both death and love find place At the same time, and if my humble brain, Burning, can nothing draw but death from thee.
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