My soul, as I turned on the pile to look;
Then rising, my saddened way I took
“To its lofty roof, for the cooler air;
I gazed, and marveled;—how crumbled were
The walls I had deemed so firm and fair!
“For, wedged in a rift of the massive stone,
Most plainly rent by its roots alone,
A beautiful peepul-tree had grown;
“Whose gradual stress would still expand
The crevice, and topple upon the sand