It Is the Breaking Down Produces Art

It is the breaking down produces art
And not the building up, the searing pain
Such as resides within a breaking heart.
Historians take note! that age so smart,
So proud, so gay, was surely at its wane:
It is the breaking down produces art.
When all the past is plotted on a chart,
Future unknown, save lofty hopes be slain--
Such as resides within a breaking heart,
That kind of anguish causes art to start,
A breaking heart, a fissure in the brain,
It is the breaking down produces art.
Even in Athens, as the fates depart
There blossoms forth a flowering rich amain
Such as resides within a breaking heart
The moment of its apex—none may thwart
But few may catch, the fleeting moment’s strain.
It is the breaking down produces art
Such as resides within a breaking heart.