95 Of pearl, and thrones radiant with chrysolite. To love and wonder; he would linger long 105 His wandering step, Obedient to high thoughts, has visited The awful ruins of the days of old: Athens, and Tyre, and Balbec,1 and the waste Where stood Jerusalem, the fallen towers 110 Of Babylon, the eternal pyramids, Memphis and Thebes, and whatsoe'er of strange Sculptured on alabaster obelisk, 115 Or jasper tomb, or mutilated sphinx, Of more than man, where marble dæmons watch The Zodiac's brazen mystery, and dead men Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around, He lingered, poring on memorials I 20 Of the world's youth, through the long burning day Gazed on those speechless shapes, nor, when the moon No voice from some sublimer world hath ever To sage or poet these responses given - 26 Therefore the names of Dæmon, Ghost, and Heaven, Remain the records of their vain endeavour, Frail spells - whose uttered charm might not avail to sever, From all we hear and all we see, 1 Observe that "shower" is a verb. 30 The day becomes more solemn and serene When noon is past there is a harmony In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, 75 Which through the summer is not heard or seen, As if it could not be, as if it had not been! Thus let thy power, which like the truth Of nature on my passive youth Descended, to my onward life supply Its calm - to one who worships thee, And every form containing thee, Whom, SPIRIT fair, thy spells did bind To fear himself, and love all human kind. SONNET OZYMANDIAS 80 Or an air-dissolved star Where the infant frost has trodden And the Alps, whose snows are spread And of living things each one; |