Lines Suggested by the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Held at Cambridge, in June, 1833. By the late William Sotheby ... With a Short Memoir of his Life |
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STAFFA AND IONA. |
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 | Lines Suggested by the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science |  |
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STAFFA AND IONA.
Staffa I scal'd thy summit hoar,
I pass'd beneath thy arch gigantic,
Whose pillar'd cavern swells the roar
When thunders on thy rocky shore
The roll of the atlantic.
I pass'd beneath thy arch gigantic,
Whose pillar'd cavern swells the roar
When thunders on thy rocky shore
The roll of the atlantic.
That hour the wind forgot to rave,
The surge forgot its motion,
And every pillar in thy cave
Slept in its shadow on the wave
Unrippled by the ocean.
The surge forgot its motion,
And every pillar in thy cave
Slept in its shadow on the wave
Unrippled by the ocean.
Then the past age before me came
When mid the lightning's sweep
Thy isle with its basaltic frame
And every column wreath'd with flame,
Burst from the boiling deep.
When mid the lightning's sweep
Thy isle with its basaltic frame
And every column wreath'd with flame,
Burst from the boiling deep.
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When mid Iona's wrecks, mean while
O'er sculptured graves I trod
Where time had strewn each mouldering aisle
O'er Saints and Kings that rear'd the pile,
I hail'd the eternal God.
Yet Staffa, more I felt his presence in thy cave
Than where Iona's cross rose o'er the western wave.
O'er sculptured graves I trod
Where time had strewn each mouldering aisle
O'er Saints and Kings that rear'd the pile,
I hail'd the eternal God.
Yet Staffa, more I felt his presence in thy cave
Than where Iona's cross rose o'er the western wave.
| Lines Suggested by the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science | |