XXVIII

When all were entered, and the roving eyes
  Of all were stayed, some upon faces bright,
Some on the priests, some on the traceries
  That decked the slumber of a marble knight, 500
And all the rustlings over that arise
  From recognizing tokens of delight,
When friendly glances meet,—­then silent ease
Spread o’er the multitude by slow degrees.

XXIX

Then swelled the organ:  up through choir and nave
  The music trembled with an inward thrill
Of bliss at its own grandeur; wave on wave
  Its flood of mellow thunder rose, until
The hushed air shivered with the throb it gave,
  Then, poising for a moment, it stood still, 510
And sank and rose again, to burst in spray
That wandered into silence far away.

XXX

Like to a mighty heart the music seemed,
  That yearns with melodies it cannot speak,
Until, in grand despair of what it dreamed,
  In the agony of effort it doth break,
Yet triumphs breaking; on it rushed and streamed
  And wantoned in its might, as when a lake,
Long pent among the mountains, bursts its walls
And in one crowding gash leaps forth and falls. 520

XXXI

Deeper and deeper shudders shook the air,
  As the huge bass kept gathering heavily,
Like thunder when it rouses in its lair,
  And with its hoarse growl shakes the low-hung sky,
It grew up like a darkness everywhere,
  Filling the vast cathedral;—­suddenly,
From the dense mass a boy’s clear treble broke
Like lightning, and the full-toned choir awoke.

XXXII

Through gorgeous windows shone the sun aslant,
  Brimming the church with gold and purple mist, 530
Meet atmosphere to bosom that rich chant. 
  Where fifty voices in one strand did twist
Their varicolored tones, and left no want
  To the delighted soul, which sank abyssed
In the warm music cloud, while, far below,
The organ heaved its surges to and fro.

XXXIII

As if a lark should suddenly drop dead
  While the blue air yet trembled with its song,
So snapped at once that music’s golden thread,
  Struck by a nameless fear that leapt along 540
From heart to heart, and like a shadow spread
  With instantaneous shiver through the throng,
So that some glanced behind, as half aware
A hideous shape of dread were standing there.

XXXIV

As when a crowd of pale men gather round,
  Watching an eddy in the leaden deep,
From which they deem the body of one drowned
  Will be cast forth, from face to face doth creep
An eager dread that holds all tongues fast bound
  Until the horror, with a ghastly leap, 550
Starts up, its dead blue arms stretched aimlessly,
Heaved with the swinging of the careless sea,—­