Clarel/Part 2/Canto 35

by Herman Melville

35. Prelusive

In Piranesi's rarer prints,
Interiors measurelessly strange,
Where the distrustful thought may range
Misgiving still--what mean the hints?
Stairs upon stairs which dim ascend 5
In series from plunged Bastiles drear--
Pit under pit; long tier on tier
Of shadowed galleries which impend
Over cloisters, cloisters without end;
The hight, the depth--the far, the near; 10
Ring-bolts to pillars in vaulted lanes,
And dragging Rhadamanthine chains;
These less of wizard influence lend
Than some allusive chambers closed.
  Those wards of hush are not disposed 15
In gibe of goblin fantasy--
Grimacc unclean diablery:
Thy wings, Imagination, span
Ideal truth in fable's seat:

The thing implied is one with man, 20
His penetralia of retreat--
The heart, with labyrinths replete:
In freaks of intimation see
Paul's "mystery of iniquity:"
Involved indeed, a blur of dream; 25
As, awed by scruple and restricted
In first design, or interdicted
By fate and warnings as might seem;
The inventor miraged all the maze,
Obscured it with prudential haze; 30
Nor less, if subject unto question,
The egg left, egg of the suggestion.
  Dwell on those etchings in the night,
Those touches bitten in the steel
By aqua-fortis, till ye feel 35
The Pauline text in gray of light;
Turn hither then and read aright.

  For ye who green or gray retain
Childhood's illusion, or but feign;
As bride and suit let pass a bier-- 40
So pass the coming canto here.