There, immense, moves uncouth leviathan; 4 There, from the hollows of phantasmal isles, The morse[4] emerging rears the face of man, There, the huge bear scents, miles on desolate miles, The basking seal;--and ocean shallower grows, Where, through its world, a world, the kraken goes. Father of races, marching at the van 5 Of the great league and armament of Thought;-- When Eastern stars grew dim to drooping man, And waned the antique light Prometheus brought, The North beheld the new Alcides rise, Unbind the Titan and relight the skies. Imperial WINTER, hail!--All hail with thee 6 Labour, the stern Perfecter of Mankind, Shaping the ends of human destiny Out of the iron of the human mind: For in our toils our fates we may survey! And where rests Labour there begins decay. Winter, and Labour, and Necessity, 7 Behold the Three that make us what we are! Forced to invent--aspirers to the High, Nerved to endure--the conquerors of the Far-- So the crude nebula in movement hurl'd, Takes form in moving, and becomes a world. Dumb Universe of Winter--there it lies 8 Dim through the mist, a spectral skeleton! Far in the wan verge of the solid skies Hangs day and night the phantom of a moon; And slowly moving on the horizon's brink Floats the vast ice-field with its glassy blink.[5] But huge adown the liquid Infinite 9 Drift the sea Andes--by the patient wrath Of the strong waves uprooted from their site In bays forlorn--and on their winter path (Themselves a winter) glide, or heavily, where They freeze the wind, halt in the inert air. Nor bird nor beast lessens with visible 10 Life, the large awe of space without a sun; Though in each atom life unseen doth dwell And glad with gladness God the Living One. HE breathes--but breathless hang the airs that freeze! HE speaks--but noiseless list the silences! A lonely ship--lone in the measureless sea, 11 Lone in the channel through the frozen steeps, Like some bold thought launch'd on infinity By early sage--comes glimmering up the deeps! The dull wave, dirge-like, moans beneath the oar; The dull air heaves with wings that glide before. From earth's warm precincts, through the sunless gate 12 That guards the central vapour-home of Dark, Into the heart of the vast Desolate, Lone flies the Dove before the lonely bark. While the crown'd seeker of the glory-spell Looks to the angel and disdains the hell.