'The
Stalactite Cave'
W. C. Sturoc
___
IN the lone hidden depths of earth,
 Long
shut from mortal eye,
Within the dome of yonder cave
What
founts of beauty lie !
As blending, while pending,
The
clustering masses hing,
The badges of ages
Long
lost to Time's dark wing.
Here juts a ponderous quilted mass
From
out the craggy steep,
And there the petrifaction wends
As
snakes deceitful creep :
Each feature in Nature
Such
harmony displays—
Though crude like and rude like,
It
wakes our meed of praise.
Aloft, from either side depend
Unnumbered
forms and strange,
And all the hoary handiwork
Of
long successive change !
For dropping, ne'er stopping,
Adown
each grotesque block
The water doth spatter
From
out the creviced rock. |
|
...continued
The torch's light had faded out,
And,
standing there alone,
I gazed upon the wondrous scene,
And
heard old Ocean's moan ;
As towering, and roaring,
The
foamy billows dash,
Till sounding, rebounding,
Within
the cave they crash.
The frowning sky, with lurid scowl,
Met
ocean's kindred blue,
And cast within the murky cave
An
awful, solemn hue ;
Yet gazing, amazing,
I
there enchanted stood,
Deep wondering, and pondering,
On
all I felt and viewed. |
|
