"to err is human, but it feels divine"

—mae west

"i saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free"

—michelangelo

"i can't forget
how she stood at the top of that long marble stair
amazed, and then with a sleepy pirouette
went slowly dancing down to the fountain-quieted square;

nothing upon her face
but for some impersonal loneliness, —not then a girl,
but as it were a reverse of the place,
a called-for falling-glide and whirl

as when a leaf, petal, or thin chip
is drawn to the falls of a pool and, circling a moment
above it ,

rides over the lip—
perfectly beautiful, perfectly ignorant of it."

—Piazza di Spagna, Early Morning, Richard Wilbur