 | Lectures on art, and poems |  |
345
SONNET
ON THE STATUE OF AN ANGEL, BY BIENAIMÉ, IN THE POSSESSION OF J. S. COPLEY GREENE, ESQ.
Ah, who can look on that celestial face,And kindred for it claim with aught on earth?
If ever here more lovely form had birth,—
No, never that supernal purity,—that grace
So eloquent of unimpassioned love!
That, by a simple movement, thus imparts
Its own harmonious peace, the while our hearts
Rise, as by instinct, to the world above.
And yet we look on cold, unconscious stone.
But what is that which thus our spirits own
As Truth and Life? 'T is not material Art,—
But e'en the Sculptor's soul to sense unsealed.
O, never may he doubt,—its witness so revealed,—
There lives within him an immortal part!
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