238

AN EVENING IN AUTUMN, NEAR NETHER STOWEY H. Alford

ENGLAND.

Glastonbury.

GLASTONBURY.

THREE times famous isle, where is that place that

might

Be with thyself compared for glory and delight,
Whilst Glastonbury stood? exalted to that pride,
Whose monastery seemed all other to deride:
O, who thy ruin sees, whom wonder doth not fill
With their great fathers' pomp, devotion, and their
skill?

Thou more than mortal power (this judgment rightly weighed)

Then present to assist, at that foundation laid;

On whom for this sad waste should justice lay the crime?

Is there a power in fate, or doth it yield to time?
Or was there error such, that thou couldst not protect
Those buildings which thy hand did with their zeal

erect?

To whom didst thou commit that monument to keep, That suffered with the dead their memory to sleep,