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Of their own dissolution, while they die –
Adorning then the dwellings of the sky.
A dome, by linked light from Heaven let down,
Sat gently on these columns as a crown –
A window of one circular diamond, there,
Look'd out above into the purple air,
And rays from God shot down that meteor chain
And hallow'd all the beauty twice again,
Save, when, between th' empyrean and that ring,
Some eager spirit flapp'd his dusky wing.
But on the pillars Seraph eyes have seen
The dimness of this world: that greyish green
That Nature loves the best Beauty's grave
Lurk'd in each cornice, round each architrave –
And every sculptur'd cherub thereabout
That from his marble dwelling peered out,
Seem'd earthly in the shadow of his niche –
Achaian statues in a world so rich!
^[1]Friezes from Tadmor and Persepolis –
From Balbec, and the stilly, clear abyss

 

1. Voltaire, in speaking of Persepolis, says, "Je conmois bien 'admiration qu'inspirent ces ruins – mais un palais erige au pied du'ne chaine des rochers sterils – peut il etre un chef doevure des arts!" — Voila les arguments de M. Voltaire.