Beauty and Form

[ZaunköniG]

Beauty and Form

Once Donatello took the shapeless stone
And slowly carved the marble to the line,
Until he wrought a human form as fine
As Greece or Italy had ever known;
Behold a woman now in splendor lone,
A statue only but a thing divine;
A beauty that this earth cannot outshine
Whose Art antique the world has not outgrown.
And so the poet takes a shapeless thought
And gives its fancies grace and melody,
Until he feels he has perfection wrought
Where Thought and Music blending happily
Create the Beauty that all time has sought,
Where perfect form is immortality.