---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 20
number: 12
published: 1917-10
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, \"The Vanities of Art,\" *Improvement Era* 20, no. 12 (October 1917): 1060–1061."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera20012unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera20012unse
start_page: 1060
end_page: 1061
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-10)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera20012unse
  publication_year: 1917
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Vanities of Art

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-a l   '   va^.




                                              \




          The Vanities of Art
          From "The Cros*," a Poem

The work of art,       all in          vain it grows,

   Fair statues, palaces and temples stand;

In vain his love the toiling artist shows,

   With dreams of beauty consecrates the land.
                                                        w
Lo, time art's triumphs to an ending brings,

   If   naught the revellers of life may heed;          w?,
                                                          :




Aye, though earth's potentates, the mighty kings,

   They lift not eyes, nor list the solemn rede!

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view once more the wonders of the arts,

                     In those bright realms where art has fairest

   #f                   been,

         The works of skillful hands and eager hearts,

                     Their beauty now   is   but in ruins seen!



         For in the lands where art the ages crown,

                     In ruins there its richest treasures found,

         As from the sky, like fate, the sun looks down,

                     And sees destruction in its endless round.

                                         Alfred Lambourne




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             •   -     -