LXXIII.

Ye pause the desolate waste-the open heaven,

The sea-fowl's clang-the grey mists hurrying by: The Altar rising there-unbowed-unriven,

Inspire ye with their own sublimity;

Sky, Mountains, Storms, its mates eternally,
For the Sea breaks no more around his shrine,
Hurled down is the Neptunian Deity:

The worshippers have pass'd, and left no sign;

The Shaker of the Earth no more is held divine!

LXXIV.

There, like some Titan, throned o'er his retreat

Of deserts, and the setting Sun's last rays

Falling around on his majestic seat,

Each limb dilated in the twilight haze

Of the dim distance that eludes the gaze;

An Image whose tranquillity

The awful consciousness of Power displays;

Whose kindred are the hills, the rocks, the Sea;

Even so the awe-struck mind, reposing, dwells on thee!

LXXV.

Even so thou risest, simple, stern, sublime,

While naked Strength lies sleeping at thy base : How those huge columns mock the assault of Time! Earthquakes have heaved-storms shook-the lightning's trace

Left the black shadows years shall not efface,

And the hot levin dinted where it fell!

But on thy stedfast and majestic face

Is stamped the impress of the Unchangeable! That, fixed for ever there, thy massive form shall dwell,

LXXVI.

Incorporate with Nature: with the earth,

With the grey rocks, the mountains, and the sky:

Time spares those columns of primeval birth :

They have outlived their earthlier destiny,

And changes which they feel not thrillingly

They speak to man, and with an eloquent tongue,
Even with the awful Voice of Memory!-

"Here once a mighty City poured its throng:

"The tides of Life rolled here exultingly along"

LXXVII.

Spirit of grey Antiquity! thou sittest

With solitude and silence here: proclaim

Thou, who a Shadow round thy ruin flittest,
Who reared that mighty Altar? from whence came
The Children of the Sea? what age-what name

Bore they, who chose this plain their home to be?
A theatre marked out for deeds of fame :

As if by Nature destined for the free:

The chainless waves beneath, above, Heaven's

canopy!

LXXVIII.

Ascend the Vestibule: lo, gleaming near,

The blue, the ever-rolling, living Sea!

So they ascended, calling thee to hear,

Source of their fame! and, while they knelt to thee,

They heard thy Voices awful melody;

And, wafted on thy heaving bosom, felt

Thy power, and wrath, and thy infinity:

Pause-on this spot have prostrate myriads knelt:

The thoughts within thy breast, in theirs, it may be,

dwelt.

LXXIX.

Go thou-sit there-and muse away thine hour;
Thy visions shall arise more just, more pure,
And, haply, with the faculty and power,

Thou wilt embody thoughts that shall endure :
But the same moral comes to all be sure;
The failing grasp we hold on life, and less,
On those, alas! whose love we would secure,

The softened feeling which ye then confess,
Love holds on earth alone the keys of Happiness!

LXXX.

Oh! that a ministering Spirit here

Lived-to enchain me with her beauty's spell,
To commune with her of her brighter sphere;
To her the aching thoughts and wishes tell
That glow within my soul unquenchable!

A creature, o'er whose brow, and azure eye,
No change could come, no earthlier passion dwell:
To walk these ruins of a world gone by,

And, 'midst decay, to feel our loves could never die.

LXXXI.

How our soul's aspirations die unproved,

Untold, unknown!-what lover e'er expressed

The idolatry he felt for her he loved?

The finest chords within the Poet's breast,

The patriot's dreams which had his country blest,
The sage's wisdom of exhaustless worth,

How have their loftiest visions unconfessed

Died-and been buried-not in graves of earth,

But in the human heart-checked-blighted in their

birth!

LXXXII.

Vain visions-false regrets!-recal the Past:

The embodied scenes of life again restore:
Clouds rise between me and yon Temple cast;
Lo-it emerges-ruin now no more!

The tides of human life throng round: the roar,
The strife of a towered City crowding round!
The shouts and songs of triumph: the far shore
With the thronged masts of navies crowned;

Even to the ends of earth are Neptune's walls renowned.