| Rodin (1914) by |
| from Poetry, July 1914 |
Rodin[]
Le Penseur (The Thinker) by Auguste Rodin ( ), Rodin Museum, Paris, 2010. Photo by Andrew Home. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Cold bronze he has made articulate,
More scorching in its eloquence than the flames
That melted it to his will of fire;
Cold marble he has made compassionate,
Wisdom unfathomable which understands
All pain, all dread, all hunger, all desire;
Cold clay he has made animate,
Life that exclaims:
“You are but babbling shells! I, life entire!”
All these things he has done, this god,
Not as a god by sure austere commands;
But by thinking, seeing, feeling, believing;
By invincible patience and tireless hands;
With a back of scorn for the self-deceiving;
With faith’s disdain for The Day’s demands,—
A Titan self-made by his masterful mold,
Who has fused into copper the meaning of gold,
All the truth he could scan,
All his ardor innate;
Breathed his soul in each stone; poured his heart in each clod,—
A man,
Who stands shoulder to shoulder with Fate.
Out of bronze and marble and clay, formless, cold,
One man has given death the lie!
This poem is in the public domain