But, while I paced along, a change
Stole o'er that scene so wild and strange.
The shapes of Nature round grew rife
With meaning and mysterious life.
My soul was opened, and I saw,
With a sense of fear and awe,
How the forms of earth apart
Lived, pulsed by one inspiring heart.
The jagged trunks, grotesque and bare,
Leafless, and hoary, and moss-dried,
Threw out abrupt into the air
Their limbs and sinews petrified.
The blind crags, the earth's giant-born,
Raised, with a wild air and forlorn,
Their bald and furrowed foreheads, riven
With earthquake and the fire from heaven;
Like Statues of that Titan brood
Who filled the world with war and blood,
Until in wrath the God unknown
Looked down, and stared them into stone!