Caress of Steel

The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time. - Thoreau

The Caress by Mary Cassat 1902

what to think and feel

plying fingers meet taut strings

a caress of steel

Author's Note

"I live in the angle of a leaden wall, into whose composition was poured a little alloy of bell-metal. Often, in the repose of my mid-day, there reaches my ears a confused tintinnabulum from without. It is the noise of my contemporaries." - Thoreau