Grim was the deep wild hollow
Where a silver ribbon poured,
Gulping the rocks that follow,
Thundering as it bored.
The temples were massive and red,
The turrets and cupolas pearled;
The olive slopes were curtains spread
Draping under the world.
I looked on the wide swung portals
Of ghost haunted temples below
For a pageant of brilliant immortals
To enter and set them aglow.
The jack pines raised their spires
Out of a sea of sun
Where the forest streaked with reddening fires
Till the earth and the sky were one.
I was thrilled in the mellow moonlight
That heaped the pit to the rim
With a yellow flood as the quivering night
Was stealthily entering in.