‘Art for art's sake,’—very well, <br />Your picture you don't care to sell? <br />Yes, yes, I do, and thus I try <br />To paint so bright they want to buy— <br />‘Art for art's sake,’—then I fear <br />You want no sympathetic tear <br />From the stalls and boxes here? <br />Yes, yes, I do, I write it so, <br />A hundred nights the crowds shall go— <br />‘Art for art's sake,’—Heavens! once more, <br />You'd say again things said before? <br />And pray, why not? I wish I could <br />Stand as Shakespeare, Fletcher, stood— <br />Nay, dear aspirant, rather write <br />As Shakespeare were he here to-night; <br />That would be far more worth prizing:— <br />But who can rise to that high pass— <br />Who can rise? alas, alas, <br />Shakespeare little thought of rising!<br /><br />William Bell Scott<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/art-for-art-s-sake-3/
