‘Life Sculpture’ is a ballad poem that uses the extended metaphor of a sculptor to convey the importance of realizing one’s true (though sometimes hidden) purpose in life. Using religious imagery and figurative language, the speaker of the poem uses a compelling scene of artistic ingenuity to reveal the existence of God’s (or whatever higher power you ascribe to) providence in our lives. Doane appears to emphasize that such interactions are cooperative in nature and require all our attention, talent, and faith.
Life Sculpture George Washington DoaneChisel in hand stood a sculptor boyWith his marble block before him,And his eyes lit up with a smile of joy,As an angel-dream passed o’er him.He carved the dream on that shapeless stone,With many a sharp incision;With heaven’s own flight the sculpture shone,—He’d caught that angel-vision.Children of life are we, as we standWith our lives uncarved before us,Waiting the hour when, at God’s command,Our life-dream shall pass o’er us.If we carve it then on the yielding stone,With many a sharp incision,Its heavenly beauty shall be our own,—Our lives, that angel-vision.
Summary
‘Life Sculpture’ by George Washington Doane is an inspirational poem about realizing your potential and manifesting it into something worth being proud of.
In ‘Life Sculpture,’ the wisdom and work of a sculptor are used to exemplify the hidden potential God places within us. The speaker opens the poem by describing the scene before them: a “sculptor boy” stares at a piece of marble (evidently trying to decide what they will carve out of it) when they are struck with inspiration (or what the speaker refers to as an “angel-dream”). In the second stanza, they chisel the marble until they’ve captured the shape of their vision within it. In the third and final stanzas, the speaker then steps out of the narrative to make an extended metaphor of the scene that just unfolded. Relating the unfinished marble at the beginning to yet unlived (and thus unshaped) lives people possess before sudden inspiration (i.e., “God’s command”) realizes our true “life-dream,” just as the young sculptor did.
Structure and Form
‘Life Sculpture’ is a four-stanza poem consisting of four quatrains with a rhyme scheme of ‘ABAB.’ As a result, it’s a type of ballad that closely resembles those known as heroic ballads — though it lacks the consistent pattern of iambic pentameter that they normally share. But the poem’s subject and themes indicate there’s still a tone and spirit of admiration being bestowed by the speaker upon the sculptor boy and what he accomplishes.
Literary Devices
‘Life Sculpture’ uses the extended metaphor of the sculptor with his stone to articulate the importance of finding personal fulfillment in our lives visually. As a bishop, that sentiment is tied directly to God and the bestowing of his grace — which is given through the dreams and visions that are viewed by the faithful. But because of his use of figurative language, the poem’s themes still function even when viewed from a secular perspective, with the sculptor representing a person realizing their full potential (be it sourced from a moment of original inspiration, a gift of the muses, or an angelic revelation). There are also a few instances of personification, such as when the sculptor’s eyes “lit up with a smile” or the speaker describes the “yielding stone.”
Doane also uses grandiose images to imprint the scenes of his quatrains onto the reader, thereby strengthening the effect of his metaphor. Be it the moment of inspiration in which the “angel-dream passed o’er him,” the repetitive “sharp incisions” made on the stone, or the way the finished project shines with a heavenly glow.
Detailed Analysis
Stanza One
Chisel in hand stood a sculptor boy
With his marble block before him,
And his eyes lit up with a smile of joy,
As an angel-dream passed o’er him.
The first quatrain of ‘Life Sculpture’ introduces the reader to a “sculptor boy” who stands before a piece of marble — possibly trying to divine what they will chisel the block of stone into. It’s then that the realization hits him via what the speaker calls an “angel-dream.”
Doane focuses on creating two seemingly opposing images within the first two lines: the boy and the “marble block before him.” The speaker also doesn’t tell us what is going through the boy’s head (is he puzzling nonchalantly or wracked with whatever the sculptor’s version of writer’s block) an ambiguity that makes his sudden revelation all the more profound. The personification of his eyes in line three is another striking image that impresses the sudden arrival of his inspiration. The source of which is the curiously phrased “angel-dream,” which Doane (who was a bishop of the Episcopal Church) might’ve used to both allude to and convert the concept of the Greek muses into something more befitting to his monotheistic tradition.
Stanza Two
He carved the dream on that shapeless stone,
With many a sharp incision;
With heaven’s own flight the sculpture shone,—
He’d caught that angel-vision.
In the second quatrain, the speaker describes how the sculptor brings to life the “angel-dream” he received in the first stanza. Through his skill (“many a sharp incision”), he creates something out of the stone through which “heaven’s own flight” shines, and the speaker declares that they’ve caught the “angel-vision” previously given to them.
The speaker once again focuses on a set of expressive scenes: using figurative language to elegantly describe both the way the sculptor “carved the dream” onto the “shapeless stone” and the shining finished work of art. Doane’s choice of diction to describe how the sculptor creates implies he doesn’t just recreate an impression of what he saw but rather directly hews it into existence. The ethereal quality of his work is self-evident in the way the reflective marble gleams with an otherworldly light, with the speaker now referring to the “dream” given to the sculptor as a “vision,” as if to imply his creation has made it all the more concrete.
Stanza Three
Children of life are we, as we stand
With our lives uncarved before us,
Waiting the hour when, at God’s command,
Our life-dream shall pass o’er us.
The third quatrain introduces more directly the theme trying to be communicated by Doane. The speaker asserts that, like the sculptor, most people live their lives staring at an “uncarved” life until we are given — “at God’s command” — a vision of the “life-dream” we should be living.
Doane uses the extended metaphor of the sculptor and the inspiration he receives from heaven to create a great work of art as a model for how people should approach life. The phrase “Children of life” used by the speaker insinuates that everyone, including adults, stands potentially before a life unfinished. It’s only when that true purpose or design is revealed to us (which, to Doane, was through God) that we can fully realize our true potential. It’s this “life-dream,” a juxtaposition of words that emphasizes something lofty becoming tangible, that we find happiness and joy within.
Stanza Four
If we carve it then on the yielding stone,
With many a sharp incision,
Its heavenly beauty shall be our own,—
Our lives, that angel-vision.
The final quatrain returns to the sculptor and his stone, with the speaker explaining that following his example will lead to the realization of our own “angel-vision.” Only by carving our own “life-dream” into the stone and making it manifest will its “heavenly beauty” be made ours. Which thus transforms our life into something ecstatic.
Doane uses a diction that emphasizes the need to claim one’s “life-dream,” as he personifies the stone as “yielding” to the carving and says that its beauty “shall be our own.” This possessive quality adds an important caveat to the theme of intervening divine inspiration: that we choose whether or not to heed the “angel-vision.” The speaker is explicit, though, that doing so is essential to our growth as humans.
FAQs
As the title and poem suggest, it was Doane’s view that people’s lives were shaped (like a sculptor carving marble) by their skill and God’s vision for them. Without divine intervention we sit as uncarved blocks of stone, waiting for the moment our plan will be revealed to us.
The theme of the poem is that it takes one’s own skill and heeding moments of revelation (self-discovered or interpreted through signs) is important in realizing a version of your life you’re proud of.
For the speaker, and indeed the author, that role of revelation is given by God and communicated via angels. But even as symbolic and not literal messengers, the poem emphasizes the ways people’s perceived meaning in life can be completely changed by a revelatory moment.
Similar Poems
- ‘Life’ by Charlotte Brontë – a poem about trying to expel pessimism about life.
- ‘A Noiseless Patient Spider’ by Walt Whitman – a poem that uses another compelling scene of creation by a living creature to wax philosophical about life.
- ‘Discovery‘ by Florence Ripley Mastin – a poem about finding providence in an unexpected moment.
