The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | ||
VIII. THE ‘MISERERE’ IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL.
Those sounds expiring on mine ear, mine eyeWas by their visual reflex strangely spelled:
A vision of the Angels who rebelled
Still hung before me, through the yielding sky
Sinking on plumes outstretched imploringly:
Their Tempter's hopes and theirs for ever quelled
396
And longed, methought, for death yet could not die.
Down, ever down a mournful pageant streaming
Like Souls in whom Despair hath slain Endeavour
Inwoven choirs to ruin blindly tending,
They sank. I wept as one who weeps while dreaming
To see them, host on host, by doom descending
Down the dim gulfs, for ever and for ever.
The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere | ||