 | Sonnets in Switzerland and Italy |  |
75
IN MILAN CATHEDRAL
Forth from the sun-lit city's dazzling square,
The cloistral mart, the teeming colonnade,
I passed through gates of silence into shade,
Blind for the sudden contrast, and was 'ware
Of shadowy congregations bowed in prayer;
And while through awesome dusk an organ made
Its moan, one murmured, and a phantom swayed
And tossed dark arms above the altar-stair.
The cloistral mart, the teeming colonnade,
I passed through gates of silence into shade,
Blind for the sudden contrast, and was 'ware
Of shadowy congregations bowed in prayer;
And while through awesome dusk an organ made
Its moan, one murmured, and a phantom swayed
And tossed dark arms above the altar-stair.
High over all, in His death agony—
The sole weird gleam in that cathedral gloom—
Hung Christ in utter friendlessness of woe;
I felt fresh hours of darkness and of doom,
I heard a great exceeding bitter cry—
‘Friend! brother! why dost thou forsake Me so?’
The sole weird gleam in that cathedral gloom—
Hung Christ in utter friendlessness of woe;
I felt fresh hours of darkness and of doom,
I heard a great exceeding bitter cry—
‘Friend! brother! why dost thou forsake Me so?’
| Sonnets in Switzerland and Italy | |