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POEMS IN PROSE: 1. THE ARTIST, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: One evening there came into his soul the desire to fashion an image
Last Line: The pleasures that abideth for a moment
Alternate Author Name(s): Finga, O'flahertie Wills


One evening there came into his soul the desire to fashion an image of The Pleasure that abideth
for a Moment. And he went forth into the world to look for bronze. For he could only think in
bronze.
But all the bronze of the whole world had disappeared, nor anywhere in the whole world was there
any bronze to be found, save only the bronze of the image of The Sorrow that endureth for Ever.
Now this image he had himself, and with his own hands, fashioned, and had set it on the tomb of the
one thing he had loved in life. On the tomb of the dead thing he had most loved had he set this
image of his own fashioning, that it might serve as a sign of the love of man that dieth not, and a
symbol of the sorrow of man that endureth for ever. And in the whole world there was no other
bronze save the bronze of this image.
And he took the image he had fashioned, and set it in a great furnace, and gave it to the fire.
And out of the bronze of the image of The Sorrow that endureth for Ever he fashioned an image of
The Pleasure that abideth for a Moment.




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