An Aspiration, from "Picture Poesies"
Houghton's image shows two girls playing with lambs. The print first appeared in "A Round of Days" (1866, see 65.629.1), engraved by the Dalziel Brothers and published by Routledge. It was here reissued in "Picture Poesies" (1874) and illustrates a poem by Frederick Locker-Lampson.
An Aspiration
I asked Miss Di, who loves her sheep,
To look at this delightful Peep
Of April leafage, pure and beamy--
A pair of girls, in hoops and nets,
Caress a pair of woolly pets--
And all is young and nice, and dreamy.
Miss Di has kindly eyes for all
That's pretty, quaint, and pastoral:
Say's she--"These ladies sentimental
Are lucky, in this world of shame,
To find a pair of luckless lambs,
So white--and so extremely gentle."
I heard her with surprise and doubt;
For though I don't much care about
The world she spoke with such distain of:
And though the lamb I mostly see
Is overdone--it seemed to me
That these had little to complain of.
When beings of the fairer sex
Arrange their white arms round our necks,
We are, and ought be be, enraptured:
I wish I was your lambe, Miss Di,
Or even that poor butterfly.
With some small hope of bein captured.
An Aspiration
I asked Miss Di, who loves her sheep,
To look at this delightful Peep
Of April leafage, pure and beamy--
A pair of girls, in hoops and nets,
Caress a pair of woolly pets--
And all is young and nice, and dreamy.
Miss Di has kindly eyes for all
That's pretty, quaint, and pastoral:
Say's she--"These ladies sentimental
Are lucky, in this world of shame,
To find a pair of luckless lambs,
So white--and so extremely gentle."
I heard her with surprise and doubt;
For though I don't much care about
The world she spoke with such distain of:
And though the lamb I mostly see
Is overdone--it seemed to me
That these had little to complain of.
When beings of the fairer sex
Arrange their white arms round our necks,
We are, and ought be be, enraptured:
I wish I was your lambe, Miss Di,
Or even that poor butterfly.
With some small hope of bein captured.
Artwork Details
- Title: An Aspiration, from "Picture Poesies"
- Artist: After Arthur Boyd Houghton (British (born India), Madras 1836–1875 London)
- Engraver: Dalziel Brothers (British, active 1839–93)
- Author: Related author Frederick Locker-Lampson (British, 1821–1895)
- Publisher: George Routledge & Sons, London
- Date: first published 1866, reissued 1874
- Medium: Wood engraving
- Dimensions: Image: 5 in. × 3 15/16 in. (12.7 × 10 cm)
Sheet: 9 3/4 × 7 1/2 in. (24.7 × 19 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Wilbur Macey Stone, 1921
- Object Number: 21.94.1(51)
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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