Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
Inside of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge
By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)T
With ill-matched aims the architect who planned—
Albeit laboring for a scanty band
Of white-robed scholars only—this immense
And glorious work of fine intelligence!
Give all thou canst: high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely-calculated less or more;
So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense
These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof
Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells,
Where light and shade repose, where music dwells
Lingering, and wandering on as loth to die;
Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
That they were born for immortality.