On A Recently Finished Statue

Said Sculptor to immaculate marble-'Show Thine essence; into necessary space Most pure describe thine unshaped Purity!' And lo this Image! As a bubble blown, Swiftly her charms, dilating, went through all The zones of sphered Perfection, till the stone Smiled as to speak. Some coming thought half-shown Forms on her parting lips, so that her face Is as a white flow'r whence a drop of dew, White with the fragrant flow'r, inclines to fall. 'Oh Everlasting Silence keep her so! Immortalise this moment, lest she grow To such a living substance as can die!' He cried. Consent Eternal heard his cry.