Each a primeval vastness, shaped by hands Whose cosmic strength carved idly then forgot, In half-created awfulness here stands, For sun and wind and cloud and rain to rot. No chaos do they seem, but as the work Of a lone God, or one to purpose blind -- Who could not turn away from it, or shirk, Yet without love or hope has wrought his mind. And man was not when first their mythic shapes Emerged Phantasmal in the Great Gulf's terror; Nor shall man be when the last silence drapes Their desolation's dread and deathless error. For supra-human, supra-mundane, sunk In dull and dread indifference they sit -- Abortive rock from whence all soul has shrunk, Abandoned quarry of the Infinite. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SAND FLESH AND SKY by CLARENCE MAJOR THE HEMP (A VIRGINIA LEGEND) by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET PARAGRAPHS: 16 by HAYDEN CARRUTH MY DEATH AS A GIRL I KNEW by JAMES GALVIN SEPULCHRE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON MA LADY'S LIPS AM LIKE DE HONEY (NEGRO LOVE SONG) by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON THE TEMPTRESS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |