University of Virginia Library

Search this document 

expand section1. 
expand section2. 
expand section3. 
collapse section4. 
collapse section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
expand section 
expand section 
expand section5. 

PROEM

They took him into confidence—each oak
Of the far forest: and all day he sat
Hearing of Nature from an autocrat,
An oak—so old, Dodona might have spoke
Its infant oracles through it; that, part
Of the oracular beauty of the gods,
Yet irresponsible, down in its heart
Still felt the rapture of their periods.
They took him into confidence—the skies:
And all night long he lay beneath one star,
Hearing of God. . . . One that was chorister
At Earth's first morning; that beheld fierce eyes
Of rebel angels, and the birth of Hell;
Whom God set over Eden and o'er them,
The Two, as destiny; that did foretell
How Christ lay born at far-off Bethlehem.