When a first shadow showed the star addressed

Itself to motion, and on either side

The rims contracted as the rays retired;

The music, like a fountain's sickening pulse,

Subsided on itself; awhile transpired

Some vestige of a Face no pangs convulse,

No prayers retard; then even this was gone,

Lost in the night at last. We, lone and left

Silent through centuries, ever and anon

Venture to probe again the vault bereft