Untouched by crimson or by gold,
Its pure and fleeting marble rose
Beyond the wall of eastern snows —
Ethereal, Pentelic, cold.

Its fragile towers were high and thin,
Symbol of beauty passionless,
Of all inviolate loveliness;
And not of earth the pearl therein—

The pearl too precious to endure,
Seen where the heavens' ghostly shell
Holds in its vast and sapphire cell
A nacre infinitely pure.

So the marmorean glory bleak
Spoke of the snows of Beauty's home;
Then that blue sea withdrew its foam,
And we that witnessed could not speak.