Classic Poem

What various scenes th' engraver's art displays
In printing human life on nature's face ;
Proportions just require not colours aid,
Where art has nicely mingled light with shade .
Hence swelling from their plane the figures glow,
And from one plate a thousand pictures grow.
No fading tints here vanish from our eyes,
Each master's work th' assault of time defies,
And lives when Raphael or when Titian dies.