Classic Poem

Know , visitor, that from this spot obscure,
So hid from human gaze,
Whither scarce once a year, across the moor,
A lonely shepherd strays,—

In olden time, far off beyond the seas,
A vast Cathedral rose,
Whose fame extends to earth's extremities,
And still with ages grows.

The stones, that here in darkness would have lain,
There pil'd in glorious state,
Up to the skies, the fretted roof sustain,
Majestically great;

Or carv'd in many a mystical device,
And forms of Saints on high,
In glory ever new, bring Paradise
Before th' astonish'd eye.

Such power hath God for His eternal ends
To human genius given;—
Genius sublime! by which the mind ascends
In Him from earth to heaven!

So, at His will and bountiful decree,
From low obscurest things,
In everlasting truth and harmony,
Celestial beauty springs.

E'en as at first, from the rude formless mas
Of earth's chaotic frame,
This fair creation, at His word of grace,
In perfect order came.