FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  
r of that blast, Shall from the surface to the centre shake, When, at the world's last sessioen, The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne. And then at last our bliss Full and perfect is: But now begins; for from this happy day, The old dragon, under ground In straiter limits bound, Not half so far casts his usurped sway; And, wroth to see his kingdom fail, Swinges[120] the scaly horror of his folded tail.[121] The oracles are dumb:[122] No voice or hideous hum Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving; Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving; No nightly trance, or breathed spell, Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. The lonely mountains o'er, And the resounding shore, A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; From haunted spring and dale, Edged with poplar pale, The parting genius[123] is with sighing sent; With flower-inwoven tresses torn, The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. In consecrated earth, And on the holy hearth, The Lars and Lemures[124] moan with midnight plaint; In urns and altars round, A drear and dying sound Affrights the flamens[125] at their service quaint; And the chill marble seems to sweat, While each peculiar power foregoes his wonted seat. Peor and Baaelim Forsake their temples dim, With that twice-battered god of Palestine; And mooned Ashtaroth, _the Assyrian Venus_. Heaven's queen and mother both, Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine; The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn;[126] In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz[127] mourn. And sullen Moloch, fled, Hath left in shadows dread His burning idol, all of blackest hue: In vain with cymbals' ring They call the grisly[128] king, In dismal dance about the furnace blue. The brutish gods of Nile as fast-- Isis and Orus and the dog Anubis--haste. Nor is Osiris[129] seen In Memphian grove or green, Trampling the unshowered[130] grass with lowings loud; Nor can he be at rest Within his sacred chest; Nought but profoundest hell can be his shroud;
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144  
145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Heaven
 

battered

 

Ashtaroth

 
Palestine
 

mooned

 

Assyrian

 

tapers

 

Hammon

 

shrinks

 

mother


wonted

 
flamens
 

midnight

 
service
 
quaint
 

Affrights

 

altars

 

marble

 

Baaelim

 

Forsake


plaint

 

foregoes

 

peculiar

 

temples

 

Osiris

 
Memphian
 

Anubis

 

Trampling

 

unshowered

 

Nought


profoundest

 

shroud

 
sacred
 

Within

 

lowings

 

brutish

 

shadows

 

burning

 

wounded

 

Thammuz


Moloch
 
sullen
 

blackest

 

dismal

 

furnace

 
grisly
 

cymbals

 
Tyrian
 
usurped
 

ground