Clarel/Part 2/Canto 35

35. Prelusive
In Piranesi's rarer prints, Interiors measurelessly strange, Where the distrustful thought may range Misgiving still--what mean the hints? Stairs upon stairs which dim ascend In series from plunged Bastiles drear-- Pit under pit; long tier on tier Of shadowed galleries which impend Over cloisters, cloisters without end; The hight, the depth--the far, the near; Ring-bolts to pillars in vaulted lanes, And dragging Rhadamanthine chains; These less of wizard influence lend Than some allusive chambers closed. Those wards of hush are not disposed In gibe of goblin fantasy-- Grimacc unclean diablery: Thy wings, Imagination, span Ideal truth in fable's seat:

The thing implied is one with man, His penetralia of retreat-- The heart, with labyrinths replete: In freaks of intimation see Paul's "mystery of iniquity:" Involved indeed, a blur of dream; As, awed by scruple and restricted In first design, or interdicted By fate and warnings as might seem; The inventor miraged all the maze, Obscured it with prudential haze; Nor less, if subject unto question, The egg left, egg of the suggestion. Dwell on those etchings in the night, Those touches bitten in the steel By aqua-fortis, till ye feel The Pauline text in gray of light; Turn hither then and read aright.

For ye who green or gray retain Childhood's illusion, or but feign; As bride and suit let pass a bier-- So pass the coming canto here.