Poems (Piatt)/Volume 1/Stone for a Statue
STONE FOR A STATUE.TO A SCULPTOR.
Leave what is white for whiter use. For such a purpose as your ownWould be a dreary jest, a coarse abuse, A bitter wrong to snowy stone.
Let the pure marble's silence hold Its unshaped gods, and do not breakThose hidden images divine and old, To-day, for one mean man's small sake!