I. Chartres

These carved and glowing crowds
bear all the witness
needed to man's faith
and reverence —
and do it with more evidence
of love and piety
than centuries of holy days
could manifest from flesh and blood.
These penitents that weather
with slow constancy of glass and stone
make flesh and blood incongruous.

Chartres needs no men to consummate
its loving masons' labors,
for God in Chartres never is alone.
All day a congregation of reverent hues
filters through the glorious host
enshrined in rose and lancet —
night and day, kings, saints, shepherds
crowd the portals, attendant angels
overflow the tympanums
as birds and sweet beasts fill interstices
among interwoven limbs, mantles, wings.

Whenever mortal enters Chartres, he
finds it thronged to its capacity.