Thomas Banks: ‘After Goya’s “Saturno Devorando a Su Hijo”‘ and ‘El Sueño de la Razón’

After Goya’s “Saturno Devorando a Su Hijo”

While in red frenzy now he feeds
Upon the child of his age,
Whose body in his dark hands bleeds
To satisfy his ancient rage,
Still in his eyes do we behold
Fear glimmer whitely, as if he,
The Father of the Gods grown old,
Has known his own mortality.

Thomas Banks

El Sueño de la Razón
(After Goya)

Exhausted with the works of light,
He lays his head upon his arm,
And soon around his head there swarm
The strange-eyed offspring of the night.

No conscious guard stands to restrict
The soft encroachment of these spies,
While lucid intellection dies
Like Goethe, mumbling mehr licht.

Dreams come, and visions, each one wearing
Looks of a separate world; while he,
Unconscious of them, does not see
Their hungry eyes behind him staring.

Thomas Banks