Poems (Hooper)/On a Portrait of Heine

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ON A PORTRAIT OF HEINE.
Behold! the limner's magic art In few yet wondrous lines doth tellHow beautiful, how sad, how sweet The face of him who sang so well!
The Poet, not the Infidel, Looks from those features calm and fair!No skeptic sneer their beauty mars, For Death is near and Thought is there.
Thus thou didst look—thus hadst thou sung, What immortality were thine!We ne'er had prayed then, "God forgive, And World forget, each mocking line!"
Forgive, O God—forget, O World, What blasphemy he could create!Let but that sweet sad face recall How sweet his song, how sad his fate!
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