58
But O the fairest pageant of a dream
Did never equal that which met our eyes!
The glacier Pillars with the living Stream
Of white-robed Shapes13, seemed linked in solemn guise,
For the same service, by mysterious ties;
Numbers exceeding credible account
Of number, stood like spotless Votaries
Prepared to issue from a wintry fount;
The impenetrable heart of that exalted Mount!
Did never equal that which met our eyes!
The glacier Pillars with the living Stream
Of white-robed Shapes13, seemed linked in solemn guise,
For the same service, by mysterious ties;
Numbers exceeding credible account
Of number, stood like spotless Votaries
Prepared to issue from a wintry fount;
The impenetrable heart of that exalted Mount!
They, too, who sent so far a holy gleam
While they the Church engirt with motion slow,
A product of that awful Mount did seem,
Poured from his vaults of everlasting snow;
Not virgin-lilies marshalled in bright row,
Not swans descending with the stealthy tide,
A livelier sisterly resemblance show
Than the fair Forms, that on the turf did glide,
To that unmoving band—the Shapes aloft descried!
While they the Church engirt with motion slow,
A product of that awful Mount did seem,
Poured from his vaults of everlasting snow;
Not virgin-lilies marshalled in bright row,
Not swans descending with the stealthy tide,
A livelier sisterly resemblance show
Than the fair Forms, that on the turf did glide,
To that unmoving band—the Shapes aloft descried!
