Kenyon Cox (1856-1919)

Kenyon Cox was an artist, writer and educator from the Art Students League of New York. He developed the school’s motto Nulla Dies Sine Linea (No Day Without a Line).

He is as known for his artwork as he is for his poetry, including the 1904 book Mixed Beasts, a collection about imaginary beasts created by combining the names of different animals. (Rhinocerostrich, Camelelephant, Bumblebeaver)

 

Work thou for pleasure; paint or sing or carve

The thing thou lovest, though the body starve.

Who works for glory misses oft the goal;

Who works for money coins his very soul;

Work for the work's sake, then, and it may be

That these things shall be added unto thee

 

 

 

She lived in Florence centuries ago,

That lady smiling there.

What her name or rank I do not know—

I know that she was fair.

For some great man — his name, like hers, forgot

And faded from Men's sight—

Loved her — he must have loved her — and has wrought

This bust for our delight.

Whether he gained her love or had her scorn

Full happy was his fate.

He saw her, heard her speak; he was not born

Four hundred years too late.

The palace throngs in every room but this —

Here I am left alone.

Love, there is none to see — I press a kiss

Upon thy lips of stone.