Have you ever seen
The portrait of a dog
Painted on the road,
Not in the great tradition
Of living colours as you’d
Expect, but in all the
Terror and detail of
An untimely death?
Have you ever seen
The sketch of an imposing house
Rendered not in vibrant charcoal
But the coal of shattered
Hopes and burnt out hulks-
The work of the Great Artist above
Or the mean imitation of an earthly forger?
Have you ever seen
The picture of an ocean beach
With dark waters lapping
The fish-laid shore,
Not the magnum opus of
A master in oils; but
The work of an oil slick?
Have you ever seen
These great Works of Art?
And have you ever wondered why
You had to be
The great portrait
Of a Master Caricaturist?
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.