460
And science dawn though late upon the earth;
Peace cheers the mind, health renovates the frame;
Disease and pleasure cease to mingle here,
Reason and passion cease to combat there;
Whilst mind unfettered o’er the earth extends 465
Its all-subduing energies, and wields
The sceptre of a vast dominion there.

Mild is the slow necessity of death: 
The tranquil spirit fails beneath its grasp,
Without a groan, almost without a fear, 470
Resigned in peace to the necessity,
Calm as a voyager to some distant land,
And full of wonder, full of hope as he. 
The deadly germs of languor and disease
Waste in the human frame, and Nature gifts 475
With choicest boons her human worshippers. 
How vigorous now the athletic form of age! 
How clear its open and unwrinkled brow! 
Where neither avarice, cunning, pride, or care,
Had stamped the seal of grey deformity 480
On all the mingling lineaments of time. 
How lovely the intrepid front of youth! 
How sweet the smiles of taintless infancy.

Within the massy prison’s mouldering courts,
Fearless and free the ruddy children play, 485
Weaving gay chaplets for their innocent brows
With the green ivy and the red wall-flower,
That mock the dungeon’s unavailing gloom;
The ponderous chains, and gratings of strong iron,
There rust amid the accumulated ruins 490
Now mingling slowly with their native earth: 
There the broad beam of day, which feebly once
Lighted the cheek of lean captivity
With a pale and sickly glare, now freely shines
On the pure smiles of infant playfulness:  495
No more the shuddering voice of hoarse despair
Peals through the echoing vaults, but soothing notes
Of ivy-fingered winds and gladsome birds
And merriment are resonant around.

The fanes of Fear and Falsehood hear no more 500
The voice that once waked multitudes to war
Thundering thro’ all their aisles:  but now respond
To the death dirge of the melancholy wind: 
It were a sight of awfulness to see
The works of faith and slavery, so vast, 505
So sumptuous, yet withal so perishing! 
Even as the corpse that rests beneath their wall. 
A thousand mourners deck the pomp of death
To-day, the breathing marble glows above
To decorate its memory, and tongues 510
Are busy of its life:  to-morrow, worms
In silence and in darkness seize their prey. 
These ruins soon leave not a wreck behind: 
Their elements, wide-scattered o’er the globe,
To happier shapes are moulded, and become 515
Ministrant to all blissful impulses: 
Thus human things are perfected, and earth,
Even as a child beneath its mother’s love,
Is strengthened in all excellence, and grows
Fairer and nobler with each passing year. 520