<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">Oxford--First Vision</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I SAW her bow'd by Time's relentless hand,</p><p class="line">Calm as cut marble, cold and beautiful,</p><p class="line">As if old sighs through the dim night of years,</p><p class="line">Like frosted snow-flakes on the silent land,</p><p class="line">Had fallen: and old laughter and old tears,</p><p class="line">Old tenderness, old passion, spent and dead,</p><p class="line">Had moulded her their stony monument:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">While ghostly memory lent</p><p class="line">Treasure of form and harmony to drape her head.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Proud-stooping statue! still her arm, up-rais'd,</p><p class="line">Pointed the sceptre skyward, like a queen</p><p class="line">Gleaning bright wonder from the world amaz'd,</p><p class="line">Thrilling the firmament with rapturous awe;</p><p class="line">Yet blind in giving light--unseeing, seen:</p><p class="line">Self-wrapp'd in gloom of wisdom and deep law.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Oh, could I pluck (methought) from out yon breast</p><p class="line">A share of her rich mystery, and feel</p><p class="line">Flushing my soul with new adventurous zeal</p><p class="line">The fiery perfume of that flame-born flower</p><p class="line">Which grows in man to God: then I might wrest</p><p class="line">Glad secrets from the past,--the golden dower</p><p class="line">Of the world's sunrise and young glimmering East.</p></div></body></html> · Great War