And round the cool green courts there ran a row Echoing all night to that sonorous flow And round the roofs a gilded gallery Far as the wild swan wings, to where the sky From those four jets four currents in one swell Across the mountain stream❜d below In misty folds, that floating as they fell Lit up a torrent-bow. And high on every peak a statue seem'd A cloud of incense of all odour steam'd From out a golden cup. So that she thought, "And who shall gaze upon My palace with unblinded eyes, While this great bow will waver in the sun, For that sweet incense rose and never fail'd, Burnt like a fringe of fire. Likewise the deep-set windows, stain'd and traced, Would seem slow-flaming crimson fires From shadow'd grots of arches interlaced, Full of long sounding corridors it was That over-vaulted grateful gloom, Thro' which the livelong day my soul did pass, Full of great rooms and small the palace stood, From living Nature, fit for every mood For some were hung with arras green and blue, Showing a gaudy summer-morn, Where with puff'd cheek the belted hunter blew His wreathed bugle-horn. One seem'd all dark and red-a tract of sand, One show'd an iron coast and angry waves. Beneath the windy wall. And one, a full-fed river winding slow By herds upon an endless plain, The ragged rims of thunder brooding low, With shadow-streaks of rain. And one, the reapers at their sultry toil. In front they bound the sheaves. Behind Were realms of upland, prodigal in oil, And hoary to the wind. And one, a foreground black with stones and slags, Beyond a line of heights, and higher All barr'd with long white cloud the scornful crags. And highest, snow and fire. And one, an English home-gray twilight pour'd On dewy pastures, dewy trees, Softer than sleep-all things in order stored, A haunt of ancient Peace. Nor these alone, but every landscape fair, As fit for every mood of mind, Or gay, or grave, or sweet, or stern, was there, Not less than truth design'd. Or the maid-mother by a crucifix, In tracts of pasture sunny-warm, Beneath branch-work of costly sardonyx Sat smiling, babe in arm. Or in a clear-wall'd city on the sea, Or thronging all one porch of Paradise, A group of Houris bow'd to see The dying Islamite, with hands and eyes That said, We wait for thee. |