06.05.2009, 06:05
ON A MONUMENT WTTH THE FIGURES OF
HOPE AND CONTEMPLATION.
Yes, it is fit Carrara's regal stone
With imaged thought should rise above the dead ;
Or softly bow with pale ideal head,
Like cherished sorrow into beauty grown :
These are the forms that joy can look upon,
And then beyond them, like an angel sped ;
Lovest thou rather the material bed
Of earthy death — or else — oblivion i
There was no death for that rejoicing spirit,
There should be no oblivion, gaze, so may
Noble and pure perchance thine own become :
Of one in heaven, who on the earth was near it,
The record this ; but nothing doth it say ;
For Hope and Contemplation both are dumb.
HOPE AND CONTEMPLATION.
Yes, it is fit Carrara's regal stone
With imaged thought should rise above the dead ;
Or softly bow with pale ideal head,
Like cherished sorrow into beauty grown :
These are the forms that joy can look upon,
And then beyond them, like an angel sped ;
Lovest thou rather the material bed
Of earthy death — or else — oblivion i
There was no death for that rejoicing spirit,
There should be no oblivion, gaze, so may
Noble and pure perchance thine own become :
Of one in heaven, who on the earth was near it,
The record this ; but nothing doth it say ;
For Hope and Contemplation both are dumb.