![](\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-zKMgICNMWts\/TZyCMQ4IMGI\/AAAAAAAABmU\/EVgR07PRXiw\/s1600\/Renoir+Inspiration+Exhibit.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nYou\u2019ve probably never heard of Kenelm Henry Digby<\/a>. You\u2019ll be hearing more about him from me though. I\u2019m currently reading a biography about him. <\/p>\n A while back, I added a slew of his works<\/a> to the YIMCatholic Bookshelf. Back on All Souls Day, I shared one of his poems<\/a> with you. Today I\u2019d like you to read a few of Digby\u2019s lines of verse about Art. I promise a post about Digby himself in the future (a fascinating conversion story!). By Admiration (works of Art, Painting, And Music)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Great Nature\u2019s works admired so, we said, The bliss of those who Nature will admire, In song, the thought and sentiment come first; But if with skill you weigh the mystic bond, Who seek but profit with much daily toil, Supporting and exalting human life,
<\/a>
But for now, just these few lines from his poem Ouranogaia: Heaven on Earth,<\/i> from Canto VI, and a bonus video featuring the work of an amazing child prodigy named Akiane Kramarik.<\/p>\n
To fields Elysian men have often led.
But works of human art no less provide
A field for admiration truly wide;
Whether they would exactly imitate
Sweet Nature\u2019s present and imperfect state;
Or striving to combine in one all parts
Of beauty, so as to inflame our hearts
By picturing an artificial whole,
Made up of parts, and no part copied sole.
While, on whatever pathway they would wend,
They all must seek this one essential end\u2014
Of making the unseen to mind appear,
Without which nought that\u2019s seen is ever dear.
For so all works design\u2019d of human art
That with success would touch and move the heart
Must still by means that are well known to all,
From things unseen remove the present pall,
That the invisible may clearly be
Brought thus before the mind; that ever we
May see its sheen, and feel its cheering glow;
For nought else moves the heart on earth below.
\u2018Tis then that art will yield for mankind here
A foretaste of the bliss that will appear
In those fair, happy regions, where it may
Be not intended all to pass away.<\/p>\n
Descends no less on those who never tire
Observing Nature in men\u2019s works of art,
Of which a view they equally impart;
So that we argue justly when we hold
That human works can Heav\u2019n itself unfold. <\/p>\n
These reign and govern, and still will keep the heights;
In painting, howe\u2019er purely artists thirst.
The workman\u2019s hand will chiefly claim its
rights\u2014
Yes, even when it seeks the pure ideal,
And shuns an imitation of the real. <\/p>\n
Connecting hands with the presiding soul,
Your thoughts disparaging will then prove fond,
If raising not more wonder at the whole;
Or else, unless the hand rebels, and then
You well may scorn Art\u2019s democratic men,<\/p>\n
By eccentricity, or what is worse,
By agency the human mind to soil
And yield a bitter, and a cleaving curse.
Whereas it is Art\u2019s office to supply
A path towards Eden to attract the eye, <\/p>\n
As even Plato show\u2019d in days of old,
Suggesting that its noble, endless strife
Should be in making age and youth behold
The inner nature of the good and fair,
To fan their temples with Elysian air.<\/p>\n