Classic Poem

The western clouds a deepening gloom display
Where light obscurely sleeps in purple streaks,
And see the slowly sinking orb of day
Dilating through the Darkness dimly breaks:
So traveller full before this central bridge
Whose lofty arch o'erlooks the winding dale
Yon towers with [chasing?] walls and broken ridge
More solemn gleam through Nature's [ ] veil:
So through the dim eclipse of antique days
Each moral image to that pile assigned
But half distinguished from [ ? ] [cottage?]
More awful features to the darkened mind.
What though yon [trees?] perchance their voice have lent
To fill the shriek that pierced the murderer's ear
Or deeper groans by captive anguish sent
Till Nature stilled the cry that none could hear.
'Tis past and in this wreck of barbarous pride
Now mortal weakness only views the tomb
[ ? ] though savage still to man allied
And o'er their terror breathes a softening gloom.
Now while the branches that depending flow
The weather [stains?] which streak the mouldering stone,
Draw from the streams [accordant?] [ ? ] below
New tints of tender sadness not their own.
Yet while with lapse still as the moonlight beam
Below the [ ? ] [at times?] the midnight hours
Should silence listening to this [ ? ] stream
[Start?] at the [music?] of their [streaming?] flowers.
When [fragrant?] morn [ ? ] [glistening?] [ ? ]
With heedless music and unaltered smile
Nor fond regret the ravage shall excite
In musing sage or thought [ ? ] toil.