Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/82

 Its fretwork in the crystal sea did steep, Encircling that vast Fane’s aerial heap: We disembark’d, and through a portal wide We pass’d—whose roof of moonstone carved, did keep A glimmering o’er the forms on every side, Sculptures like life and thought, immovable, deep-eyed. LII.

We came to a vast hall, whose glorious roof Was diamond, which had drunk the lightning’s sheen In darkness, and now poured it through the woof Of spell-inwoven clouds hung there to screen Its blinding splendor—through such veil was seen That work of subtlest power, divine and rare; Orb above orb, with starry shapes between, And horned moons, and meteors strange and fair, On night-black columns poised—one hollow hemisphere! LIII.

Ten thousand columns in that quivering light Distinct—between whose shafts wound far away The long and labyrinthine aisles—more bright With their own radiance than the Heaven of Day; And on the jasper walls around, there lay Paintings, the poesy of mightiest thought, Which did the Spirit’s history display; A tale of passionate change, divinely taught, Which, in their winged dance, unconscious Genii wrought. LIV.

Beneath, there sate on many a sapphire throne, The Great, who had departed from mankind, A mighty Senate;—some, whose white hair shone Like mountain snow, mild, beautiful, and blind; Some, female forms, whose gestures beam’d with mind; And ardent youths, and children bright and fair; And some had lyres whose strings were intertwined With pale and clinging flames, which ever there Waked faint yet thrilling sounds that pierced the crystal air. LV.

One seat was vacant in the midst, a throne, Rear’d on a pyramid like sculptured flame, Distinct with circling steps which rested on Their own deep fire—soon as the Woman came Into that hall, she shriek’d the Spirit’s name And fell; and vanish’d slowly from the sight. Darkness arose from her dissolving frame, Which gathering, fill’d that dome of woven light, Blotting its sphered stars with supernatural night.