Images of gods carved out from a lifeless stone

Who could have chosen such a disheartening mode?

Yet such tenderness and grace from such a spiritless form

Is a stone really no more than it seems?

What absolute stillness, how inanimate an object

What a measure of complete numbness

Yet evokes such beauty by its mere place near the water

Is a stone really no more than it seems?

Such a muted presence, such silence

What could be less expressive?

Yet the singular vitality of palace walls and castles

Is a stone really no more than it seems?

Motion is lacking, there is no sound

Surely it would seem worthless

Yet a tombstone celebrates life with such grandeur