The Divine Vision

This mood hath known all beauty for it sees     O'erwhelmed majesties     In these pale forms, and kingly crowns of gold     On brows no longer bold,     And through the shadowy terrors of their hell     The love for which they fell,     And how desire which cast them in the deep     Called God too from his sleep.     O, pity, only seer, who looking through     A heart melted like dew,     Seest the long perished in the present thus,     For ever dwell in us.     Whatever time thy golden eyelids ope     They travel to a hope;     Not only backward from these low degrees     To starry dynasties,     But, looking far where now the silence owns     And rules from empty thrones,     Thou seest the enchanted halls of heaven burn     For joy at our return.     Thy tender kiss hath memory we are kings     For all our wanderings.     Thy shining eyes already see the after     In hidden light and laughter.