18.12.2012, 12:18
Fictitious life with simulated grace
Is given to the marble's shapeless block,
All but its pow'r as if to death-cold rock
Which surges wash, like homage at its base.
Expression, contour, passion you may trace
Which time but deepens on the features, there
Is beheld the polish'd stone's shining face
To which all nature-gifted traits repair ;
How great was the glorious art, as lov'd
Praxiteles, Phidias, Lysippus prov'd
In the world's early, not all darken'd day: —
What can more wondrously typify mind
Where diamond brilliancy may be enshrin'd
Needing culture its fair lineaments to display?
Is given to the marble's shapeless block,
All but its pow'r as if to death-cold rock
Which surges wash, like homage at its base.
Expression, contour, passion you may trace
Which time but deepens on the features, there
Is beheld the polish'd stone's shining face
To which all nature-gifted traits repair ;
How great was the glorious art, as lov'd
Praxiteles, Phidias, Lysippus prov'd
In the world's early, not all darken'd day: —
What can more wondrously typify mind
Where diamond brilliancy may be enshrin'd
Needing culture its fair lineaments to display?