Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/475

The stern decrees go forth, which heaped on Greece
Ruin and degradation and despair.
A fourth now waits: assemble, sons of God,
To speed or to prevent or to suspend,
If, as ye dream, such power be not withheld, 50
The unaccomplished destiny.
•••••••••

Chorus.
The curtain of the Universe
Is rent and shattered,
The splendour-wingèd worlds disperse
Like wild doves scattered. 55

Space is roofless and bare,
And in the midst a cloudy shrine,
Dark amid thrones of light.
In the blue glow of hyaline
Golden worlds revolve and shine. 60
Inflight
From every point of the Infinite,
Like a thousand dawns on a single night
The splendours rise and spread;
And through thunder and darkness dread 65
Light and music are radiated,
And in their pavilioned chariots led
By riving wings high overhead
The giant Powers move.
Gloomy or bright as the thrones they fill. 70
••••••
A chaos of light and motion
Upon that glassy ocean.
••••••
The senate of the Gods is met,
Each in his rank and station set;
There is silence in the spaces— 75
Lo! Satan, Christ, and Mahomet
Start from their places!

Christ.Almighty Father!
Low-kneeling at the feet of Destiny
••••••••
There are two fountains in which spirits weep 80
When mortals err, Discord and Slavery named,
And with their bitter dew two Destinies
Filled each their irrevocable urns; the third.
Fiercest and mightiest, mingled both, and added
Chaos and Death, and slow Oblivion's lymph, 85
And hate and terror, and the poisoned rain
••••••••
The Aurora of the nations. By this brow