Page:Landon in Literary Gazette 1831.pdf/7

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the crimson curtains fell, Coloured with the hues that dwell In the Tyrian's purple shell— That bright secret which is known To the mighty past alone. Forty pillars rose between, In that fine Corinthian mould When a life's whole task has been How to work the burning gold— Gold which some young conqueror's hand Brought from many a vanquish'd land; Then bade genius raise a shrine— Thus profaning the divine— Till his rapine and his crime Grew in that false light sublime. Azure was the roof, and light Pour'd down from the crystal dome; Clear the crystal was and bright As in its own ocean home. Polish'd like a warrior's shield, Black (for such the quarries yield Where the sun hath never shone, Which night only rests upon,) Was the marble floor, which gave Mirror like some clear dark wave. Silent was that hall around, Moved no step and stirred no sound; Yet the shapes of life were there, Spiritual, calm, and fair— Statues to whose rest seem'd given Not the life of earth but heaven; For each statue here enshrined What in the immortal mind Makes its beauty and its power— Genius's eternal dower: Those embodyings of thought Which within the spirit wrought In its most ethereal time, Of its own and earlier clime