Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Mitchelstown Caverns (Author: Gerald Griffin)

p.134

  1. Grimly it frown'd when first with shuddering mind
    We saw the far–famed Cavern's darkling womb,
    And for that vault of silence and of gloom
    Left the fair day and smiling world behind.
    But what bright wonder hail'd our eyes ere long!
    The chrystal well—the sparry curtaines dome—
    The sparkling shafts that propp'd that cavern'd home,
    And vaults that turn'd the homeliest sounds to song.
    Oh, this, I thought, is sure a symbol plain
    Of that undreaded death, the holy die,
    Stern at the first and withering to the view;
    But past that gate of darkness and of pain,
    What scenes of unimagined rapture lie—
    Rich with elysian wealth and splendour ever new.