Paul Veronese: (Three Sonnets)

I

Paul, let thy faces from the canvas look

Haply less clearly than Pietro's can,

Less lively than in tints of Titian,

Or him who both the bay-wreath-chaplets took:

Yet shalt thou therefore have no harsh rebuke

Of me whom, while with eager eye I scan

O'er painted pomps of Brera and Vatican,

The first delight thou gavest ne'er forsook.

For in thy own Verona, long ago,

Before one masterpiece of cool arcades,

I made a friend; and such a friend was rare.

For him, I love thy velvet's glorious show,

Thy sheens of silk 'twixt marble balustrades,

Thy breathing-space and full translucent air.