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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Edmund Ollier (1827–1886)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

IV. The Subject of Babylon Continued (I.)

Edmund Ollier (1827–1886)

A WILDERNESS of beauty! a domain

Of visions and stupendous thoughts in stone,—

The sculptured dream of some enchanter’s brain,—

There did I see, all sunning in their own

Splendor and warmth; a thousand palaces,

Where tower looked out on tower; all overgrown

With pictured deeds, and coiling traceries,

And monstrous shapes in strange conjunction met,

The idol phantoms of an age long past,

In midst of which the wingéd Bull was set;

And I saw temples of enormous size,

Silent yet thronged; and pyramids that cast

Shadows upon each golden-peaked pavilion,

And on the column flushed with azure and vermilion.