V.

Hark, from within, slow and sonorous stole Deep organ-tones; with solemn pomp of sound Meet to bear up the disimprison'd soul From mortal homage in material piles, To blend with Angel Halleluiahs!--Round The charmed place the notes melodious roll As with a visible flood: adown the aisles Of Nature's first cathedrals (vistas dim, Through leafless woodlands), far and farther float On to the startled haunts of toiling men, The marching music-tides: the heavenly note Thrills through the reeking air of alleys grim; Awes wolf-eyed Guilt close skulking in its den; Lulls Childhood, wailing with white lips for bread, On the starved breast of nerveless Penury; Fever lies soothed upon its burning bed: Indignant Worth stills its world-weary sigh; The widow'd bride looks upward from the dead, And deems she hears his welcome to the sky. On, the grand music, more and more remote, Bore the grey blind man's soul, itself a hymn, Till lost in air amid the Seraphim.