IDOLATRY
I stood before a leg in the museum,A marble leg, a mutilated leg,Supported by a rod of polished bronze.This leg of some hermaphroditic godWas carved in Greece, when ancient Greece was young.In deepest reverence I stood and gazedUpon this relic of an absent god.And as I stood I wondered if perchanceIdolatry is not this very act,That thus enshrines an ancient piece of stone,Whilst living sculptors are compelled to wasteIn fruitless idleness that precious powerWhich carves the Victories of Samothrace.Idolators, ye worship graven stonesBut are indifferent to the gods that carve them.
I stood before a leg in the museum,A marble leg, a mutilated leg,Supported by a rod of polished bronze.This leg of some hermaphroditic godWas carved in Greece, when ancient Greece was young.In deepest reverence I stood and gazedUpon this relic of an absent god.And as I stood I wondered if perchanceIdolatry is not this very act,That thus enshrines an ancient piece of stone,Whilst living sculptors are compelled to wasteIn fruitless idleness that precious powerWhich carves the Victories of Samothrace.Idolators, ye worship graven stonesBut are indifferent to the gods that carve them.
I stood before a leg in the museum,A marble leg, a mutilated leg,Supported by a rod of polished bronze.This leg of some hermaphroditic godWas carved in Greece, when ancient Greece was young.
I stood before a leg in the museum,
A marble leg, a mutilated leg,
Supported by a rod of polished bronze.
This leg of some hermaphroditic god
Was carved in Greece, when ancient Greece was young.
In deepest reverence I stood and gazedUpon this relic of an absent god.And as I stood I wondered if perchanceIdolatry is not this very act,That thus enshrines an ancient piece of stone,Whilst living sculptors are compelled to wasteIn fruitless idleness that precious powerWhich carves the Victories of Samothrace.
In deepest reverence I stood and gazed
Upon this relic of an absent god.
And as I stood I wondered if perchance
Idolatry is not this very act,
That thus enshrines an ancient piece of stone,
Whilst living sculptors are compelled to waste
In fruitless idleness that precious power
Which carves the Victories of Samothrace.
Idolators, ye worship graven stonesBut are indifferent to the gods that carve them.
Idolators, ye worship graven stones
But are indifferent to the gods that carve them.