Auguste Rodin ‘Cariatide tombée portant sa pierre’
(1881-1897)
Musée de Beaux Arts, Le Fin de Siècle, Bruxelles
Out of the Formless Stone
by T. S. Eliot
Out of the Formless Stone,
When the artist united himself with stone,
Spring always new forms of life,
From the soul of man that is
Joined to the soul of stone;
Out of the meaningless practical shapes
Of all that is living or lifeless
Joined with the artist´s eye
New life, new form, new colour.
Out of the sea of sound
The life of music,
Out of the slimy mud of words,
Out of the sleet and hail of
verbal imprecisions,
Approximate thoughts and feelings,
Words that have taken the place
Of thoughts and feelings,
There spring the perfect order of speech,
And the beauty of incantation.
In Herrig,
Meller, Sühnel eds (1966) British and American Classical Poems.
