Antiquity

Mystery! thou subtile essence! — Ages gain
New light from darkness; still thy blanks remain;
And Reason tries to chace old Night from thee.
When Chaos fled, thy parent took the key,
Blank Darkness; and the things Age left behind
Are locked for aye in thy unspeaking mind.
Towers, temples, ruins, on and under ground,
So old — so dark — so mystic — so profound —
Old Time, himself so old, is like a child,
And can't remember when these blocks were piled,
Or caverns scooped; and with amazed eye
He seems to pause, like other standers-by,
Half thinking, that the wonders left unknown
Were born in ages older than his own.