 | Stones from The Quarry |  |
266
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
O thou grand Prayer of Stone! for all things shareThat sense and sentiment, and mutely pray!
How, from the lowly pavement which doth lay
Its humble stones the poorest tread to bear,
And for Death to write on them “Life,” “Beware!”
Steals up inaudible (yet spirits may
Hear feelingly) that prayer; and far away
Thrills up each column, monumental there,
Perdurable. If sermons be in stones,
As with the voice of Men and Angels these
Do preach, while Death amid the mouldering bones
Of Greatness the World's pulses seems to freeze.
Yet stop they not. All dead and living tones
Join in that prayer, its volume to increase.
| Stones from The Quarry | |