Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton

Here you will find the Poem Sonnet I of poet Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton

Sonnet I

ON SEEING THE BUST OF THE YOUNG PRINCESS DE MONTFORT
(In the studio of Bartolini, at Florence).

SWEET marble I didst thou merely represent, 
In lieu of her on whom our glances rest, 
Some common loveliness,--we were content, 
As with a modell'd beauty, well express'd; 
But, by the very skill which makes thee seem 
So like HER bright and intellectual face, 
The heart is led unsatisfied to dream; 
For sculpture cannot give the breathing grace, 
The light which plays beneath that shadowy brow, 
Like sunshine on the fountains of the south,-- 
The blush which tints that cheek with roseate glow,-- 
The smile which hovers round that angel-mouth: 
No! such the form o'er which Pygmalion sigh'd-- 
Too fair to be complete while SOUL was still denied!