A Genius caged in niceties of art; <br />A full-souled Bard that should have thought apart, <br />Creatively peculiar—not as taught <br />By models which (though rare and richly wrought, <br />As polished jewels set in chastened gold) <br />Have lost at length their birth-fire, and are cold. <br /> <br />Yet how shot through with beauty are the Lays <br />His nice hand fashioned for the after days! <br />Painting and Sculpture in his verse combine <br />With Poesy; and breathing through each line <br />In harmonised transfusion, they dispense <br />The spirit of a triune excellence.<br /><br />Charles Harpur<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/collins/
