Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | India: Elephanta, the Island | | The Cave of Elephanta | | Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) |
| | | WHAT know ye of them? Nothing,—there they stand | |
| Gloomy as night, inscrutable as fate, | |
| Altars no more divine, and shrines which know | |
| Nor priests, nor votaries, nor sacrifice; | |
| The stranger’s wonder all their worship now. | 5 |
| And yet coeval as the naked rock | |
| Seem they with mother earth,—immutable; | |
| Time, tempest, warfare, ordinary decay | |
| Is not for these. The memory of man | |
| Has lost their rise, although they are his work. | 10 |
| Two senses here are present,—one of power, | |
| And one of nothingness; doth it not mock | |
| The mighty mind to see the meaner part, | |
| The task it taught its hands, outlast itself? | |
| The temple was a type, a thing of stone | 15 |
| Built by laborious days which made up years; | |
| The creed which hallowed it was of the soul; | |
| And yet the creed hath passed,—the temple stands. * * * * * | | | | |
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