Sonnet On Aesthetics

: The Sublime (Aesthetics / Burke & Kant)The gentle garden pleases with its grace,The balanced statue satisfies the eye,But beauty vanishes before the face,Of jagged mountains tearing through the sky.A vast abyss, a roaring winter sea,A thundercloud that darkens all the land,It strikes us down to absolute degree,Too great for human minds to understand.Yet in that terror shines a majestic light,We feel our physical frame is small and frail,But spirit rises up to match the height,And triumphs where the mortal senses fail.The grand horrific wakes a deeper soul:In shattering the self, we are made whole.