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ONE evening there came into his soulthe 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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