IMPRESSIONS. 73 



real individual greatness is lost sight of. But that 

 wall of a thousand feet perpendicular, with its seams 

 and rents and stooping cliiTs, is one of the few things 

 in the world the beholder can never forget. It frowns 

 yet on my vision in my solitary hours ; and with 

 feelings half of sympathy, half of terror, I think of 

 it rising there in its lonely greatness. 



"Has not the soul, the being of your life, 

 Received a shock of awful consciousness, 

 In some calm season, when these lofty rocks, 

 At night's approach, bring down th' unclouded sky 

 To rest upon the circumambient walls ; 

 A temple framing of dimensions vast, 

 * * The whispering air 

 Sends inspiration from the shadowy heights 

 And blind recesses of the cavern'd rocks ; 

 The little rills and waters numberless, 

 Insensible by daylight, blend their notes 

 With the loud streams ; and often, at the hour 

 When issue forth the first pale stars, is heard 

 Within the circuit of the fabric huge, 

 One voice — one solitary raven, flying 

 Athwart the concave of the dark blue dome, 

 Unseen, perchance, above the power of sight — 

 An iron knell ! with echoes from afar, 

 Faint and still fainter." 

 4 



