“Pictor Ignotus” Summary

“Pictor Ignotus” Themes

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  Artistic Failure and Disappointment

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• 

  The Power of Art

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• 

  The Commodification of Art

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Pictor Ignotus”

• Lines 1-6

  I could have painted pictures like that youth's
  Ye praise so. How my soul springs up! No bar
  Stayed me—ah, thought which saddens while it soothes!
  —Never did fate forbid me, star by star,
  To outburst on your night with all my gift
  Of fires from God:

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-12

  nor would my flesh have shrunk
  From seconding my soul, with eyes uplift
  And wide to heaven, or, straight like thunder, sunk
  To the centre, of an instant; or around
  Turned calmly and inquisitive, to scan
  The license and the limit, space and bound,
  Allowed to truth made visible in man.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-24

  And, like that youth ye praise so, all I saw,
  Over the canvas could my hand have flung,
  Each face obedient to its passion's law,
  Each passion clear proclaimed without a tongue;
  Whether Hope rose at once in all the blood,
  A-tiptoe for the blessing of embrace,
  Or Rapture drooped the eyes, as when her brood
  Pull down the nesting dove's heart to its place;
  Or Confidence lit swift the forehead up,
  And locked the mouth fast, like a castle braved—
  O human faces, hath it spilt, my cup?
  What did ye give me that I have not saved?

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-35

  Nor will I say I have not dreamed (how well!)
  Of going—I, in each new picture—forth,
  As, making new hearts beat and bosoms swell,
  To Pope or Kaiser, East, West, South, or North,
  Bound for the calmly-satisfied great State,
  Or glad aspiring little burgh, it went,
  Flowers cast upon the car which bore the freight,
  Through old streets named afresh from the event,
  Till it reached home, where learned age should greet
  My face, and youth, the star not yet distinct
  Above his hair, lie learning at my feet!—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 36-43

  Oh, thus to live, I and my picture, linked
  With love about, and praise, till life should end,
  And then not go to heaven, but linger here,
  Here on my earth, earth's every man my friend—
  The thought grew frightful, 'twas so wildly dear!
  But a voice changed it. Glimpses of such sights
  Have scared me, like the revels through a door
  Of some strange house of idols at its rites!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 44-49

  This world seemed not the world it was before:
  Mixed with my loving trusting ones, there trooped
  . . . Who summoned those cold faces that begun
  To press on me and judge me? Though I stooped
  Shrinking, as from the soldiery a nun,
  They drew me forth, and spite of me . . . enough!

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 50-57

  These buy and sell our pictures, take and give,
  Count them for garniture and household-stuff,
  And where they live needs must our pictures live
  And see their faces, listen to their prate,
  Partakers of their daily pettiness,
  Discussed of—"This I love, or this I hate,
  This likes me more, and this affects me less!"
  Wherefore I chose my portion.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 57-68

  If at whiles
  My heart sinks, as monotonous I paint
  These endless cloisters and eternal aisles
  With the same series, Virgin, Babe and Saint,
  With the same cold calm beautiful regard—
  At least no merchant traffics in my heart;
  The sanctuary's gloom at least shall ward
  Vain tongues from where my pictures stand apart;
  Only prayer breaks the silence of the shrine
  While, blackening in the daily candle-smoke,
  They moulder on the damp wall's travertine,
  'Mid echoes the light footstep never woke.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 69-72

  So, die my pictures! surely, gently die!
  O youth, men praise so,—holds their praise its worth?
  Blown harshly, keeps the trump its golden cry?
  Tastes sweet the water with such specks of earth?

  

  

  

  

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“Pictor Ignotus” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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“Pictor Ignotus” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Pictor Ignotus
• That youth's / Ye praise so
• No bar / Stayed me
• Seconding
• Of an instant
• Bound
• Brood
• Old streets named afresh from the event
• Count them for garniture and household-stuff
• Prate
• This likes me more, and this affects me less
• Wherefore I chose my portion
• At whiles
• Cloisters
• Regard
• Vain
• Travertine
• Light
• Trump

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Pictor Ignotus”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Pictor Ignotus” Speaker

“Pictor Ignotus” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Pictor Ignotus”

More “Pictor Ignotus” Resources

• External Resources

  • That Youth Ye Praise So — Learn about Raphael, the likely model for the poem's highly praised youth.

  • Browning's Influence — Read writer A. S. Byatt on how Browning influenced her novel Possession.

  • Portraits of Browning — See images of Browning in his own years as a "Pictor Ignotus" (or at least a lesser-known artist) and his later life as a justly honored old sage.

  • More Browning Resources — Visit the Victorian Web to find a treasure trove of information on Browning's life and work.

  • A Brief Biography — Learn about Browning's life at the Poetry Foundation's website.

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