Classic Poem

The Orient sketches Decamps tried to limn
Are touched of tawdry colours, crude and grim.
Fromentin had a more authentic style,
And seldom trenched on anecdotal guile;
And yet he turned from paint to toy with prose
And, as a critic, changed old friends to foes.
He knew the value of official ‘bays,’
And the proud function of the flashing phrase.