|
|
Previous | all pages
|
Next |
|
|
FRIEDERICH WERNER
The Templars in Cyprus
page 264
Tho lifelea» lettor tind the barren won!,
(Tho' thoy bu living inapiraiion'* mask)
Vit aro thoy ever of the Sign but ligna:
Art-plastic n|H-a more truly outward form,
Tho eaat'iio», Molos" child moro clearly shows;1
Yet aro there |oitit* where form and essrnco meet
In close embntoe*; glaneea, sigh*, and tears!
And how shall ho who ventures tremblingly
Anigh tho llowcry field* of holv Art,
Ami light* ujion the jiooreat plot of all,
W*b«r* nought spring* u|) but barren letter-1horns ;
S ij, how slmll tho poor |oet hi* work begin '(
Ho must, to bring you 'neath illusion's sjiell.
So interweave word-syinlol« that they paint
A picture, even BUCII as Mcloa' own ;
Yea, fortune favouring, oven looks, sighs, and tears.
Hut vain the Sign's best effort if yon fail To rise therefrom to the intrinsic Heal ; Tears in themselves tiro water, nothing more ! Therefore would you not your enjoyment mar, l'robo not too far the Sign's anatomy ; Kmbraco the Heal that in the picture lives !— Dead many of my pictures are, I know,— Yet albeit few, 1 have somo sparks of life; Transcend mo !—where I've smouldered, flash to fire
Moreover, to conclude where I began,—
If you rend jiocms, (for example mine)
He willed, lives anything therein, to live it ;
And just to live, for lietter cannot be,
Grasp or grasp not, the outwnrd Sign, yet live it ;
And seek not that Light which is boni of ovil !
Light, thotigh't bo visible, may not lxs grasped ;
The words themselves of this concluding chnrgc
Are dark to all who have not truly lived.—
1 Homer i» ail by son».- to have been born at Melo».—7raa«.
THE TE MI-LA ta IN CTFtU*.
|
|
|
Previous |
First |
Next |
|
|
|