There seem’d to burst upon my flooded sight A globe of lustre, an enormous sun; It swallow’d, in the majesty of its might, The whole vast concave, where the eye can run: I stood, I know not where, marking it glide With stealthy swiftness on its axle, round; And there were forms, frown’d lurid on its side, Their names were on their brows, there was no sound: The orb had blazon’d, Change, on each proud flank, And pass’d its order’d puppets in review; First, Death rose ghastly, then as sudden sank, Conquered by Woe, of sullen haggard hue: Despair and Hope, Love, Youth, Fear, Friendship, Hate, Tears, Laughter, Beauty, Age grew link’d in fate. |