Upward Poem by John Bowring

---'Più elevato
'Nel affocato rido delle stelle!'

-Dante


Under the canopy of holy thought
I turn to Thee; and in the silent awe
Of Thy felt presence, reverently draw
Nearer Thy light; while marvellously brought
Within a sphere diviner, I am taught
New revelations and sublimer law
Unearthly, and I see what prophets saw
When on their spiritual souls Thy glory wrought
The work of inspiration. Thou absorbed
In Thine own self, and all that's pure inorbed
With an ineffable beatitude-
Freed from all worldly taint, all element
Unworthy-I become a light-beam blent
In the grand Fountain-Sun of Joy or Good.