Classic Poem

Back with the circling gloom that hems us round,
Further and further thrust the black confine:
Oh, let for us new stars in heaven shine,
New flowers blossom from the teeming ground;
Make earth confess her secrets: search and sound
The deeps of ocean: ever wider grows
The shining space, and ever brighter glows
The promise — clear to thought's extremest bound,
As aisle by aisle the mighty vistas spread,
As the great portals open one by one —
That this great pile is not untenanted,
That one great presence lives in every part,
Splendid, in that bright splendour of the sun,
Pure, in the rapture of a loving heart.