Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
On the Mer-de-Glace (Author: Patrick Augustine Sheehan)

p.439

  1. Hither God brought His rebel seas to try
    How high His wrath could lash them, unrelieved
    By sinking spaces or by low'ring sky;
    And they, by loftiest altitudes deceived,
    Leaped to his lash as if they fain believed
    They, too, could sweep his skies, and there decry
    His promise, when the smoking altars heaved
    And sullen waters left the mountains dry.
  2. But He, resenting such Titanic pride.
    Transfixed them in columnar ice and stone,
    Leaving vast valleys in their solitude.
    There till the scythes of the last lava tide
    Shall level all things, all proud things dethrone.
    The spirits of those Stylites dream and brood.
  3. PATRICK AUGUSTINE SHEEHAN