 | Three Hundred Sonnets |  |
26
SEMIRAMIS.
Stupendous Babylon! before mine eyesThy mountain walls and marble terraces,
Domes, temples, towers, and golden palaces
In vision'd recollection grandly rise
Huge and obscure, as icebergs in a cloud;
And mingling there a dense barbaric crowd
Throng thy triumphal car with eastern state,
Moon of the world, Semiramis the Great!
Ambiguous shade of majesty supreme,
Upon the night of ages limn'd sublime,
We think of thee but as a glorious dream,
And, waiving those dark hints of unproved crime,
Fain would we hope thee great and good combin'd,
To hail thee patriot Queen, and mighty Mind.
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