Frescos in an Old Church

Six Centuries now have gone
Since, one by one,
These stones were laid,
And in air's vacancy
This beauty made.

They who thus reared them
Their rest have won;
Ours now this heritage-
To guard, preserve, delight in, brood upon;
And in these transitory fragments scan
The immortal longings of the soul of man.

Walter de la Mare

Image: St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read, Corby Glen, Linconshire c.1325