Page:Studies in Song - Swinburne (1880).djvu/216

8.

Church and hospice wrought in faultless fashion,

Hall and chancel bounteous and sublime,
Wide and sweet and glorious as compassion,
Filled and thrilled with force of choral chime,
Filled with spirit of prayer and thrilled with passion
Hailed a God more merciful than Time.

9.

Ah, less mighty, less than Time prevailing,

Shrunk, expelled, made nothing at his nod,
Less than clouds across the sea-line sailing,
Lies he, stricken by his master's rod.
'Where is man?' the cloister murmurs wailing;
Back the mute shrine thunders—'Where is God?'