In many a midnight vision bowed
Before the ominous aspect of her spear;[155]
Whether the mighty beam, in scorn upheld,
Threatened her foes,—or, pompously at rest,
Seemed to bisect her orbèd shield,
As stretches a blue bar of solid cloud[156]
Across the setting sun and all the fiery west.[157]
III
30
So did she daunt the Earth, and God defy!