Madmoments: or First Verseattempts By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison |
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TO COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. |
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 | Madmoments: or First Verseattempts |  |
TO COLOGNE CATHEDRAL.
1.
How glorious this vast and timeworn pile!Amid whose speaking, hoar antiquity,
Sits heavenly Meditation, and on high
Spreads her still wings above the pillared Aisle,
That shoots up branchingly, as to beguile
The heart of all its earthliness: the eye
Is lost amid the roof's Immensity
Of dimlylighted space, that wakes meanwhile
A corresponding amplitude of thought.
How holily the light falls broken on
Yon' scattered groups, from the tall windows caught,
Streaming in rainbowhues from off the Sun,
On Age's wrinklëd face, to beauty wrought
By prayer, if not of Youth, yet all its own!
2.
And on the fair, calm brow of infancy,90
What study for a painter's graphic art,
In the dim groups that in the shade half lie
Of the tall columns, thus, unconsciously,
Making the scene so picturesque! each part
Has its own charm of feeling: scarce a smart
Of earthly grief but in this calm might die
Into a Sense almost of bliss: and lo!
The blent and whispering accents rise around,
One mighty voice of prayer; a solemn Sound,
That in its sweetness strong, yet soft and low,
O'erpowers us: oh God! he who has found
Thee, unto him is neither weal nor woe!
3.
'Tis past! the last faint accents murmuring dieIn lingering echos thro' the stilly Pile,
Like a departed blessing: and awhile
A deep, long Silence marks expressively
Its sweet Impression: scarce a stifled sigh
Breaks on the holy Calm, and up the aisle
On Rapture's wings is borne, as to beguile
The full intensity of Prayer: the high
And holy thoughts of God alone may dare
To enter here; methinks 'twere rich e'en now
To mingle, like a spirit, with the air,
Aud pass away from all Earth's fretting, low,
And gnawing cares, e'en 'mid the Gush and Glow
Of Thoughts that in Eternity do share!
| Madmoments: or First Verseattempts | |