Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/486

442 I have beheld Sophia's bright roofs swell

Their glittering mass i' the Sun, and have surveyed

Its sanctuary the while the usurping Moslem prayed;

CLIV.

But thou, of temples old, or altars new,

Standest alone—with nothing like to thee—

Worthiest of God, the Holy and the True!

Since Zion's desolation, when that He

Forsook his former city, what could be,

Of earthly structures, in His honour piled,

Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty—

Power—Glory—Strength—and Beauty all are aisled

In this eternal Ark of worship undefiled.

CLV.

Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not;

And why? it is not lessened—but thy mind,

Expanded by the Genius of the spot,

Has grown colossal, and can only find

A fit abode wherein appear enshrined

Thy hopes of Immortality—and thou