There But For Bronze

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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. 

Nowhere 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
he  had 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.

***

OSCAR WILDE
The Artist

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