Here, high in air, unconscious of the storm.
Thy temple, Nature, rears it's mystic form;
From earth to heav'n, unwrought by mortal toil,
Towers the vast fabric on the desert soil;
O'er many a league the ponderous domes extend.
And deep in earth the ribbed vaults descend;
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A thousand jasper steps with circling sweep
Lead the slow votary up the winding steep;
Ten thousand piers, now join'd and now aloof,
Bear on their branching arms the fretted roof.
Unnumber'd ailes connect unnumber'd halls,
And sacred symbols crowd the pictur'd walls;
With pencil rude forgotten days design,
And arts, or empires, live in every line.
While chain'd reluctant on the marble ground,
Indignant Time reclines, by Sculpture bound;
And sternly bending o'er a scroll unroll'd,
Inscribes the future with his style of gold.
—So erst, when Proteus on the briny shore,
New forms assum'd of eagle, pard, or boar;
The wise Atrides bound in sea-weed thongs
The changeful god amid his scaly throngs;
Till in deep tones his opening lips at last
Reluctant told the future and the past.
Here o'er piazza'd courts, and long arcades,
The bowers of Pleasure root their waving shades;
Shed o'er the pansied moss a checker'd gloom,
Bend with new fruits, with flow'rs successive bloom.
Pleas'd, their light limbs on beds of roses press'd,
In slight undress recumbent Beauties rest;
On tiptoe steps surrounding Graces move,
And gay Desires expand their wings above.
