Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare. <br />Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace, <br />And lay them prone upon the earth and cease <br />To ponder on themselves, the while they stare <br />At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere <br />In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese <br />Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release <br />From dusty bondage into luminous air. <br />O blinding hour, O holy, terrible day, <br />When first the shaft into his vision shone <br />Of light anatomized! Euclid alone <br />Has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they <br />Who, though once only and then but far away, <br />Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.<br /><br />Edna St. Vincent Millay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/euclid-alone/
