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Tennyson, Alfred Lord - The Vision of Sin - Then methought I heard a mellow sound
Identifier
013884
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Alfred Lord Tennyson – from The Vision of Sin
Then methought I heard a mellow sound
Gathering up from all the lower ground
Narrowing in to where they sat assembled
Low voluptuous music winding trembled
Woven in circles, they that heard it sighed
Painted hand-in-hand with faces pale
Swung themselves, and in low tones replied;
Till the fountain spouted, showering wide
Sleet of diamond drift and pearly hail;
Then the music touched the gates and died;
Rose again from where it seemed to fail
Stormed in orbs of song, a growing gale
Till thronging in and in, to where they waited
As 'twere a hundred throated nightingale
The strong tempestuous treble throbbed and palpitated
Ran into its giddiest whirl of sound
Caught the sparkle, and in circles
Purple gauzes, golden hazes, liquid mazes
Flung the torrent rainbow round