... grant me the ability to compose a long sentence, whose line, customarily from breath to breath, is a line spanned like a suspension bridge like a rainbow the alpha and omega of the ocean ... may they contain worlds, shadows of worlds, and worlds of dreams ... sculptured by the sweat of my brow, extending so far that in each there might be reflected the mirror image of a cathedral, a great oratorio, a triptych ... the heart brimming with sorrow, rocky cliffs, and the furrow of fate in the hand.
- Zbigniew Herbert, from the poem "Breviary"