The City In The Sea

12No rays from the holy Heaven come down

13On the long night-time of that town;

14But light from out the lurid sea

15Streams up the turrets silently —

16Gleams up the pinnacles far and free —

17Up domes — up spires — up kingly halls —

18Up fanes — up Babylon-like walls —

19Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers

20Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers —

21Up many and many a marvellous shrine

22Whose wreathed friezes intertwine

23The viol, the violet, and the vine.

24Resignedly beneath the sky

25The melancholy waters lie.

26So blend the turrets and shadows there

27That all seem pendulous in air,

28While from a proud tower in the town

29Death looks gigantically down.

30There open fanes and gaping graves

31Yawn level with the luminous waves;

32But not the riches there that lie

33In each idol's diamond eye —

34Not the gaily-jewelled dead

35Tempt the waters from their bed;

36For no ripples curl, alas!

37Along that wilderness of glass —

38No swellings tell that winds may be

39Upon some far-off happier sea —

40No heavings hint that winds have been

41On seas less hideously serene.

42But lo, a stir is in the air!

43The wave — there is a movement there!

44As if the towers had thrust aside,

45In slightly sinking, the dull tide —

46As if their tops had feebly given

47A void within the filmy Heaven.

48The waves have now a redder glow —

49The hours are breathing faint and low —

50And when, amid no earthly moans,

51Down, down that town shall settle hence,

52Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,

53Shall do it reverence.