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| James Thornhill Three studies for Thetis at the Forge of Vulcan ca. 1710 drawing Tate Gallery |
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| Anonymous British artist Académie ca. 1700-1800 drawing Tate Gallery |
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| Susanna Duncombe née Highmore Head of a young woman in a blue hat ca. 1760-90 drawing Tate Gallery |
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| John Hamilton Mortimer Study of the Bacchus of Sansovino (from a cast) before 1779 drawing Tate Gallery |
Bacchus III
The god who fled down with a standard yard
(Surveying with that reed which was his guard
He showed St. John the New Jerusalem;
It was a sugarcane containing rum
And hence the fire on which these works depend)
Taught and quivered strung upon the bend
An outmost crystal a recumbent flame
(He drinks all cups the tyrant could acclaim;
He still is dumb, illimitably wined,
Burns still his nose and liver for mankind) . . .
It is an ether, such an agony.
In the thin choking air of Caucasus
He under operation lies forever
Smelling the chlorine in the chloroform.
The plains around him flood with the destroyers
Pasturing the stallions in the standing corn.
– William Empson (1940)
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| James Barry The Temptation of Adam ca. 1790 etching, engraving, aquatint Tate Gallery |
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| James Barry Satan, Sin and Death from Paradise Lost ca. 1792-1808 etching Tate Gallery |
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| James Barry Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos before 1806 etching, engraving, aquatint Tate Gallery |
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| attributed to James Barry Self-portrait before 1806 drawing Tate Gallery |
Self-Portrait
He wants to be
a brutal old man,
an aggressive old man,
as dull, as brutal
as the emptiness around him,
He doesn't want compromise,
nor to be ever nice
to anyone. Just mean,
and final in his brutal,
his total, rejection of it all.
He tried the sweet,
the gentle, the "oh,
let's hold hands together"
and it was awful,
dull, brutally inconsequential.
Now he'll stand on
his own dwindling legs.
His arms, his skin,
shrink daily. And
he loves, but hates equally.
– Robert Creeley (1991)
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| Anonymous British artist Heroic Male Nude, Standing ca. 1800-1900 drawing Tate Gallery |
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| Joseph Mallord William Turner The Tenth Plague of Egypt 1816 etching, engraving Tate Gallery |
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| William Mulready Academy Study 1842 drawing Tate Gallery |
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| Edward Burne-Jones Study for Seated Woman for The Passing of Venus ca. 1877 drawing Tate Gallery |
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| William Nicholson Sarah Bernhardt from Twelve Portraits (First Series) 1899 lithograph Tate Gallery |
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| William Nicholson H.M. the Queen from Twelve Portraits (First Series) 1899 lithograph Tate Gallery |
Victoria
I am Queen and I shall do my utmost to fulfil
my duty towards my country.
Duty is a slapped mouth, sewn shut with cat-gut.
To my dear, loyal subjects who are assembled to show
their good humour and excessive loyalty.
Apes, hyenas, jackdaws: how they screech and caw.
How proud I felt to be the Queen of such a Nation,
the Crown being placed on my head, so gently.
But such a weight! Monstrous as a beached whale.
It was, I remember, a most beautiful, impressive moment.
My robes draped on the chair beautifully.
White body full of blood, bruises that bleed.
Nothing was done without his loving advice and help,
darling Albert was the other part of me.
Filled with life after life after life after life after life.
The only ray of comfort I get for a moment is in the firm
conviction and certainty,
I remember the chloroform. So blissfully empty of voices.
of his nearness, his undying love and of our eternal reunion.
Impatiently I wait and I do my damn duty.
– Ruth Stacey (2015)
Poems from the archives of Poetry (Chicago)