Untouched by crimson or by gold, <br />Its pure and fleeting marble rose <br />Beyond the wall of eastern snows — <br />Ethereal, Pentelic, cold. <br /> <br />Its fragile towers were high and thin, <br />Symbol of beauty passionless, <br />Of all inviolate loveliness; <br />And not of earth the pearl therein— <br /> <br />The pearl too precious to endure, <br />Seen where the heavens' ghostly shell <br />Holds in its vast and sapphire cell <br />A nacre infinitely pure. <br /> <br />So the marmorean glory bleak <br />Spoke of the snows of Beauty's home; <br />Then that blue sea withdrew its foam, <br />And we that witnessed could not speak.<br /><br />George Sterling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-winter-dawn-2/
