Enduring Beauty

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  “Beauty is the quality which makes to endure. In a house that I know, I have noticed a block of spermaceti lying about closets and mantel-pieces, for twenty years together, simply because the tallow-man gave it the form of a rabbit; and, I suppose, it may continue to be lugged about unchanged for a century. Let an artist scrawl a few lines or figures on the back of a letter, and that scrap of paper is rescued from danger, is put in portfolio, is framed and glazed, and, in proportion to the beauty of the lines drawn, will be kept for centuries. Burns writes a copy of verses, and sends them to a newspaper, and the human race take charge of them that they shall not perish.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson. (1803–1882).   Essays and English Traits.

a muse

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O Scholarly Pen!
(Where to begin?)
Touching your lips to the dry desert page,
Caressing that plane,
A dance not in vain,
Swirling true art from the mind.

O Unlearned Keys!
(who credits these?)
Standing in rows on old bleachers like troops.
A-fiction romance
and diction, no dance,
Stamping the mark from the hand.

O Sapient tyro*!
(how will you go?)
Seeking to eat from the table of lore.
A home-sculptured meal,
Or “a fast-food deal”?
Glean from the ones who take time!

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"[T]hat's what learning has come to nowadays. The Latin language is hardly understood, Hebrew is unknown and Greek is so little esteemed that it is not considered ignorant for even the most learned men to pass over a Greek word without reading it." -- Victor Hugo
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* an interesting word referring to a student in general, implying the kind of student he is: ignorant or learned. That he is "sapient" suggests he is "learned."