For countless centuries unknown,

Point, here, and there, and yon, to where

God and his angels dwell in air; —

And thistles rise and grow and bloom,

And cypresses, those trees of gloom,

Frown everywhere along the pale

Which is the entrance to the vale; —

But nothing—nothing moves within:

There is no tumult and no din: —

Shut out by hills that scarcely show