Brother artist, help me; come! <br />Artists are a maimed band: <br />I have words but not a hand; <br />Thou hast hands though thou art dumb. <br /> <br />Had I thine, when words did fail- <br />Vassal-words their hasting chief, <br />On the white awaiting leaf <br />Shapes of power should tell the tale. <br /> <br />Had I hers of music-might, <br />I would shake the air with storm <br />Till the red clouds trailed enorm <br />Boreal dances through the night. <br /> <br />Had I his whose foresight rare <br />Piles the stones with lordliest art, <br />From the quarry of my heart <br />Love should climb a heavenly stair! <br /> <br />Had I his whose wooing slow <br />Wins the marble's hidden child, <br />Out in passion undefiled <br />Stood my Psyche, white as snow! <br /> <br />Maimed, a little help I pray; <br />Words suffice not for my end; <br />Let thy hand obey thy friend, <br />Say for me what I would say. <br /> <br />Draw me, on an arid plain <br />With hoar-headed mountains nigh, <br />Under a clear morning sky <br />Telling of a night of rain, <br /> <br />Huge and half-shaped, like a block <br />Chosen for sarcophagus <br />By a Pharaoh glorious, <br />One rude solitary rock. <br /> <br />Cleave it down along the ridge <br />With a fissure yawning deep <br />To the heart of the hard heap, <br />Like the rent of riving wedge. <br /> <br />Through the cleft let hands appear, <br />Upward pointed with pressed palms <br />As if raised in silent psalms <br />For salvation come anear. <br /> <br />Turn thee now-'tis almost done!- <br />To the near horizon's verge: <br />Make the smallest arc emerge <br />Of the forehead of the sun. <br /> <br />One thing more-I ask too much!- <br />From a brow which hope makes brave <br />Sweep the shadow of the grave <br />With a single golden touch. <br /> <br />Thanks, dear painter; that is all. <br />If thy picture one day should <br />Need some words to make it good, <br />I am ready to thy call.<br /><br />George MacDonald<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/brother-artist/
