Deemest thou laborOnly is earnest?Grave is all beauty,Solemn is joy.
He saw wan Woman toil with famished eyes; He saw her bound, and strove to sing her free. He saw her fall'n; and wrote "The Bridge of Sighs"; And on it crossed to immortality.
Empires dissolve and peoples disappear, song passes not away.
Song is not Truth, not Wisdom, but the rose Upon Truths lips, the light in Wisdom's eyes.
Braying of arrogant brass, whimper of querulous reeds.
The thirst to know and understand a large and liberal discontent.