"Within the deep dark cleft of rock dividing, Two giants taller than their kin, Whence the sharp blade of piercing torrent gliding, Here flashes sudden on the sight, there hiding 'Mid stones all voice with crashing din; Where earthborn shade with skylight blends, A grot of grisly gloom impends The source from which the wave descends. "Upon its horrid mouth, I ween, The foot of man hath never been; The foulest bird of prey would shrink To nestle on that noisome brink. Now the warm cauldron's sulphury fumes upseething, As sighs that Stygian pit exhales, The cavern's pitchy entrance veils, Then in the wind's cold breath the vapours wreathing, Dissolve--again the eye defines The dripping portals' jagged lines. "A glorious vision from that cave Glittered before my gazing eye; A seraph-face, like one that beams Upon his sight, when blissful dreams Round holy hermit's pillow fly. A form of light, as souls that cleave The darksome dungeon of the grave, When awful judgment hour is nigh. And oh, that voice! Can words express The fulness of its loveliness, Its rare and wondrous melody? Ah, no! no mortal tongue may be So powerful in poesy! "Might I but gaze upon that brow, Might I but hear that witching strain, The joys that all the Seven Climes[1] know, The charms that all the heavens show, Were mine--but mine in vain. "A moment pass'd the sound away, Faded the vision from my sight; And all was as it was before-- Vapour and gloom and deaf'ning roar. Then soft arose that sound again-- Again appeared that form of light Athwart the blue mist, purely white; As from the main, at break of day, Springs high to heaven the silvery spray. "She beckoneth to me, And in that smile there is Promise of love and bliss, Enduring endlessly. "Whirled my brain, my heedless foot Already left the verge Where the water-spirit pours His bolts of feathery surge, Where iron rocks around, beneath, Stand quick to do the work of death. When, swift as thought, an icy arm Against my falling bosom prest; Its mighty touch dissolved the charm, As suns disperse the mists that rest On heathery mountains' dewy crest.