Classic Poem

FROM THE GERMAN OF UHLAND.

I N yonder dim and pathless wood
Strange sounds are heard at twilight hour,
And peals of solemn music swell,
As from some minster's lofty tower.
From age to age those sounds are heard,
Borne on the breeze at twilight hour;
From age to age, no foot hath found
A pathway to the minster's tower.

Late, wandering in that ancient wood,
As onward through the gloom I trod,
From all the woes and wrongs of earth
My soul ascended to its God.
When lo! in the hushed wilderness
I heard, far off, that solemn bell:
Still heavenward as my spirit soared,
Wilder and sweeter rang the knell.

While thus in holy musings rapt,
My mind from outward sense withdrawn,
Some power had caught me from the earth,
And far into the heavens upborne —
Methought a hundred years had passed,
In mystic visions as I lay,
When suddenly the parting clouds
Seemed opening wide and far away.

No midday sun its glory shed, —
The stars were shrouded from my sight, —
And lo! majestic o'er my head,
A minster shone in solemn light.
High through the lurid heavens it seemed
Aloft, on cloudy wings, to rise,
Till all its pointed turrets gleamed,
Far flaming, through the vaulted skies;

The bell, with full, resounding peal,
Rang booming through the rocking tower:
No hand had stirred its iron tongue,
Slow swaying to the storm-wind's power.
My bosom beating like a bark
Dashed by the surging ocean's foam,
I trod, with faltering, fearful joy,
The mazes of the mighty dome.

A soft light through the oriel streamed,
Like summer moonlight's golden gloom;
Far through the dusky arches gleamed,
And filled with glory all the room.
Pale sculptures of the sainted dead
Seemed waking from their icy thrall,
And many a glory-circled head
Smiled sadly from the storied wall.

Low at the altar's foot I knelt,
Transfixed with awe, and dumb with dread,
For blazoned on the vaulted roof
Were heaven's fiercest glories spread.
Yet when I raised my eyes once more,
The vaulted roof itself was gone;
Wide open was heaven's lofty door,
And every cloudy veil withdrawn!

What visions burst upon my soul —
What joys unutterable there,
In waves on waves, forever roll
Like music through the pulseless air —
These never mortal tongue may tell:
Let him who fain would prove their power
Pause when he hears that solemn knell
Float on the breeze at twilight hour.