And cloud-built castles, towering high, O'er gorgeous scenes that fancy rears, Where laughing orbs illume the sky, Seem mansions for our future years; And, while the spirit gazing stands, Enwrapt with pleasure at the scenes Which fill Imagination's lands With palaces for fairy queens, The view is changing--all is gone-- The castles, fading slow away, As misty shapes at early dawn, Vanish before the coming day; And storm-clouds now are lowering round; Wild demon shapes are flitting by; Fierce flames are rising from the ground, And lurid lightnings cleave the sky. Bleak snow-capped mountains o'er us frown, While, gray and grim, through darkened air, Towers and turrets, looking down From rocky heights o'erhanging there, Seem prisons for the wandering brain, Within whose deep and caverned walls 'Tis doomed for ever to remain, 'Mid shrieks as from demoniac halls. But pyramids above these rise, Whose summits, gleaming gaily bright, Inspire with hope the fainting eyes, As bathed they stand in golden light, Lifting their peaks high o'er the dark, Like shining spots, that on the breast Of darkened Luna, seem to mark Some towering Etna's blazing crest. Perched on these lofty granite piles, Rise adamantine domes of power, Secure from treachery, force, or wiles, Reared in Ambition's happy hour, When, having left the storm behind, Of raging battles, fears, and hates, He spurns their threats as empty wind, Himself the guardian of the gates. Here in these grand, but lonely halls,-- Unmingling with the crowd below, And all unharmed by what befalls Poor wanderers in this world of woe,-- Ambition, well-directed, dwells, While songs of sorrow, care, and grief, Give place to martial music's swells, Which proudly hail the victor chief. Yet not alone--without a friend To share his toil-bought honours great, And by congenial spirit lend New splendour to his regal state-- Celestial Hope dwells ever near, And Happiness, her sister gay; And thus they live, while year on year With rapid pinions rolls away. But gazing from these lofty walls, A landscape rises bright and fair, Where happy light serenely falls On scenes of gorgeous beauty there. Here crystal founts, 'mid orient flowers, Which radiant shine in varied hues, Flow joyous through an Eden's bowers, Where perfume loads the falling dews;