In sullen grandeur o’er the rest,

One, like a pillar, vast and rude,

Stood monarch of the solitude.

Perchance by Roman conqueror’s hand

Th’ enduring monument was plann’d;

Or Odin’s sons, in days gone by,

Had shaped its rough immensity,

To rear, midst mountain, rock, and wood,

A temple meet for rites of blood.

But they were gone, who might have told