The Christian Scholar By the Author of "The Cathedral" [i.e. Isaac Williams] |
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 | The Christian Scholar |  |
283
V. THE SHADES BELOW.
Then Plato's high philosophy,
Of things that after death shall be,
Was shadow'd in that vision deep,
Which pass'd the ivory gate of sleep.
Lo, where the golden branch displayed
Shone 'mid the green embowering shade;
The wingèd pair that led them on
From step to step, alight thereon,
His Mother's doves, there sitting by
In beautiful sweet augury.
Thence in the darkling solitude,
As through the obscure of some deep wood,
When the pale moon half hides her light,
Through realms of subterranean night;—
Hush'd, lest they do the silence wrong
Which doth to things of death belong;—
With multitudinous ghosts around,
As birds that throng the Autumnal ground.
Then gloomily they pass the bound
Of houses for eternity,
With adamant wall'd to the sky:
Their varied place of woe assign'd
To every crime wrought 'mong mankind,
Their penal sufferings manifold
By eye unseen, by tongue untold.
And there to pious souls is given
Elysian realms of nether Heaven:
Another sun and firmament,
And other stars, and o'er them bent
Purple serene, ethereal light,
With gifts beyond our mortal sight.
Of things that after death shall be,
Was shadow'd in that vision deep,
Which pass'd the ivory gate of sleep.
Lo, where the golden branch displayed
Shone 'mid the green embowering shade;
The wingèd pair that led them on
From step to step, alight thereon,
His Mother's doves, there sitting by
In beautiful sweet augury.
Thence in the darkling solitude,
As through the obscure of some deep wood,
When the pale moon half hides her light,
Through realms of subterranean night;—
Hush'd, lest they do the silence wrong
Which doth to things of death belong;—
With multitudinous ghosts around,
As birds that throng the Autumnal ground.
Then gloomily they pass the bound
Of houses for eternity,
With adamant wall'd to the sky:
284
To every crime wrought 'mong mankind,
Their penal sufferings manifold
By eye unseen, by tongue untold.
And there to pious souls is given
Elysian realms of nether Heaven:
Another sun and firmament,
And other stars, and o'er them bent
Purple serene, ethereal light,
With gifts beyond our mortal sight.
Sweet teacher of our early youth!
The ancient Keeper of Christ's truth
Hath hail'd and own'd thee most of all
On whom the heathen shadows fall.
For pure thy page and undefiled,
Not unmeet for a Christian child .
Till poets down all Christendom
Thy gentle genius did illume.
Tasso hath lit his lamp by thine;
No other guide the Florentine
Sought in the penal shades below,
And regions of eternal woe.
The ancient Keeper of Christ's truth
Hath hail'd and own'd thee most of all
On whom the heathen shadows fall.
For pure thy page and undefiled,
Not unmeet for a Christian child .
Till poets down all Christendom
Thy gentle genius did illume.
Tasso hath lit his lamp by thine;
No other guide the Florentine
Sought in the penal shades below,
And regions of eternal woe.
| The Christian Scholar | |