How vast, how dread, overwhelming is the thought...

By Washington Allston

How vast, how dread, overwhelming is the thought

Of Space interminable! to the soul

A circling weight that crushes into nought

Her mighty faculties! a wond'rous whole,

Without or parts, beginning, or an end!

How fearful then on desp'rate wings to send

The fancy e'en amid the waste profound!

Yet, born as if all daring to astound,

Thy giant hand, oh Angelo, hath hurl'd

E'en human forms, with all their mortal weight,

Down the dread void — fall endless as their fate!

Already now they seem from world to world

For ages thrown; yet doom'd, another past,

Another still to reach, nor e'er to reach the last!