A Precept

With words of ivory,
Of bronze, of ebony,
Of alabaster, marble, steel, and gold,
The beauty of the visible is told.

But how with these express
The unseen Loveliness—
Splendour and light, and harmony, and sound,
The heart hath felt, the sense hath never found?

No shining words of stone—
Shadow and cloud alone—
These shall the poet seek eternally,
Whose lines would carve the mask of Mystery.