I. FIRST ILLUMINATION. TEMPLE! where Time has wed Eternity, How beautiful Thou art, beyond compare, Now emptied of thy massive majesty, And made so faery-frail, so faery-fair: The lineaments that thou art wont to wear Augustly traced in ponderous masonry, Lie faint as in a woof of filmy air, Within their frames of mellow jewelry. -- But yet how sweet the hardly-waking sense, That when the strength of hours has quenched those gems, Disparted all those soft-bright diadems, -- Still in the Sun thy form will rise supreme In its own solid clear magnificence, Divinest substance then, as now divinest dream. II. SECOND ILLUMINATION. MY heart was resting with a peaceful gaze, So peaceful that it seemed I well could die Entranced before such Beauty, -- when a cry Burst from me, and I sunk in dumb amaze: The molten stars before a withering blaze Paled to annihilation, and my eye, Stunned by the splendour, saw against the sky Nothing but light, -- sheer light, -- and light's own haze. At last that giddying Sight took form, -- and then Appeared the stable Vision of a Crown, From the black vault by unseen Power let down, Cross-topped, -- thrice girt with flame: -- Cities of men, Queens of the Earth! bow low, -- was ever brow Of mortal birth adorned as Rome is now? III. REFLECTION. PAST is the first dear phantom of our sight, A loadstar of calm loveliness to draw All souls from out this world of fault and flaw, To a most perfect centre of delight, Merged in deep fire; -- our joy is turned to awe, Delight to wonder. This is just and right; -- A greater light puts out the lesser light, -- So be it ever, -- such is God's high law. The self-same Sun that calls the flowers from earth Withers them soon, to give the fruit free birth; -- The nobler Spirit to whom much is given Must take still more, though in that more there lie The risk of losing All; -- to gaze at Heaven, We blind our earthly eyes; -- to live we die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...O BLACK AND UNKNOWN BARDS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 6 by EZRA POUND A LAMENT by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES STRUCTURAL IRON WORKERS by MACKNIGHT BLACK THE BOY COLUMBUS by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN |