Canto 35 (In Piranesi's rarer prints…)

In Piranesi's rarer prints, Interiors measurelessly strange, Where the distrustful thought may range Misgiving still—what mean the hints? Stairs upon stairs which dim ascend In series from plunged Bastiles drear— Pit under pit; long tier on tier Of shadowed galleries which impend Over cloisters, cloisters without end; The hight, the depth—the far, the near; Ring-bolts to pillars in vaulted lanes, And dragging Rhadamanthine chains; These less of wizard influence lend Than some allusive chambers closed. Those wards of hush are not disposed In gibe of goblin fantasy— Grimacc unclean diablery: Thy wings, Imagination, span Ideal truth in fable's seat:

The thing implied is one with man, His penetralia of retreat— The heart, with labyrinths replete: In freaks of intimation see Paul's "mystery of iniquity:" Involved indeed, a blur of dream; As, awed by scruple and restricted In first design, or interdicted By fate and warnings as might seem; The inventor miraged all the maze, Obscured it with prudential haze; Nor less, if subject unto question, The egg left, egg of the suggestion. Dwell on those etchings in the night, Those touches bitten in the steel By aqua-fortis, till ye feel The Pauline text in gray of light; Turn hither then and read aright.

For ye who green or gray retain Childhood's illusion, or but feign; As bride and suit let pass a bier— So pass the coming canto here.