University of Virginia Library


79

[Here speaks the voice of God—let man be dumb]

Here speaks the voice of God—let man be dumb,
Nor with his vain aspirings hither come.
That voice impels the hollow-sounding floods,
And like a Presence, fills the distant woods.
These groaning rocks the Almighty's finger piled;
For ages here his painted bow has smiled,
Mocking the changes and the chance of time—
Eternal, beautiful, serene, sublime!