Fragment from “Herod”

Herod speaks:

I DREAMED last night of a dome of beaten gold

To be a counter-glory to the Sun.

There shall the eagle blindly dash himself,

There the first beam shall strike, and there the moon

Shall aim all night her argent archery;

And it shall be the tryst of sundered stars,

The haunt of dead and dreaming Solomon;

Shall send a light upon the lost in Hell,

And flashings upon faces without hope.—

And I will think in gold and dream in silver,

Imagine in marble and conceive in bronze,

Till it shall dazzle pilgrim nations

And stammering tribes from undiscovered lands,

Allure the living God out of the bliss,

And all the streaming seraphim from heaven.