Page:Shelley, a poem, with other writings (Thomson, Debell).djvu/24

Then most elastic Time, as oft in dream,
   Stretched out until five lustrums came and went,
Swaying my soul upon their stormy stream.
   The earth was shaken, the great deeps were rent;
   From all the quarters of the firmament
A desolating deluge seemed to pour
Of fire and blood and tears and frantic war.

Amidst whose terrors one stern human form,
   Above the mad crowds throned in haughty state,
Appeared to wield the thunders of the storm
   And hurl its dreadful lightnings, and dilate—
   The Captain-Executioner of Fate;
Until dragged down, and with a galling chain
Bound to a lonely rock amidst the main.

And then another lustrum came and went,
   Of peaceful years compared with those before;
Wherein I heard that Voice whose ravishment
   I had not heard amid the crash and roar
   And shriekings of the earth-confusing war.
Through all the lustrum till the chained Chief died
That glorious Voice the air beatified.

A voice of right amidst a world gone wrong,
   A voice of hope amidst a world's despair,
A voice instinct with such melodious song
   As hardly until then had thrilled the air
   Of this gross underworld wherein we fare
With heavenly inspirations, too divine
For souls besotted with earth's sensual wine.