Explore "Lines on the Portrait of a Celebrated Publisher" by John Greenleaf Whittier on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A pleasant print to peddle out / In lands of rice and cotton; / The model of that face in dough / Would make the artist's fortune. / For Fame to thee has come unsought, / While others vainly woo her, / In proof how mean a thing can make / A great man of its doer.
To whom shall men thyself compare, / Since common models fail 'em, / Save classic goose of ancient Rome, / Or sacred ass of Balaam? / The gabble of that wakeful goose / Saved Rome from sack of Brennus; / The braying of the prophet's ass / Betrayed the angel's menace!