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...HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 10 by EZRA POUND A LOVE SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT THE BARON'S LAST BANQUET by ALBERT GORTON GREENE ODE ON THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER by JORGE MANRIQUE IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 14 by ALFRED TENNYSON |