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II.
Methought I journeyed o'er a boundless plainUnbroke by vale or hill, on all sides stretched,
Like circling ocean, to the low-browed sky;
Save in the midst a verdant mount whose sides
Flowers of all hues and fragrant breath adorned.
Lightly I trod, as on some joyous quest,
Beneath the azure vault and early sun;
But while my pleased eyes ranged the circuit green,
New light shone round; a murmur came, confused,
Like many voices and the rush of wings.
Upward I gazed, and 'mid the glittering skies,
Begirt by flying myriads, saw a throne
Whose thousand splendors blazed upon the earth
Refulgent as another sun. Through clouds
They came, and vapors colored by Aurora,
Mingling in swell sublime, voices, and harps,
And sounding wings, and hallelujahs sweet.
Sudden, a Seraph that before them flew,
Pausing upon his wide-unfolded plumes,
Put to his mouth the likeness of a trump,
And toward the four winds four times fiercely breathed.
Doubling along the arch, the mighty peal
To Heaven resounded, Hell returned a groan,
And shuddering Earth a moment reeled, confounded,
From her fixed pathway as the staggering ship,
Stunned by some mountain billow, reels. The isles,
With heaving ocean, rocked: the mountains shook
Their ancient coronets: the avalanche
Thundered: silence succeeded through the nations.
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It struck the general pulse of nature still,
And broke, for ever, the dull sleep of death.
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