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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE STATUE by JOHN BANISTER TABB

First Line: FIRST FASHIONED IN THE ARTIST'S BRAIN
Last Line: THAT HEAVEN REVEALS TO EARTH.
Subject(s): SILENCE; STATUES;

First fashioned in the artist's brain,
It stood as in the marble vein,
Revealed to him alone;
Nor could he from its native night
Have led it to the living light,
Save through the lifeless stone.

E'en so, of silence and of sound
A twin-born mystery is found,
Like as of death and birth;
Without the pause we had not heard
The harmony, nor caught the word
That heaven reveals to earth.



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