When the vexed hubbub of our world of gain Roars round about me as I walk the street,
The myriad noise of Traffic, and the beat Of Toil's incessant hammer, the fierce strain Of struggle hand to hand and brain to brain,
Ofttimes a sudden dream my sense will cheat,
The gaudy shops, the sky-piled roofs retreat,
And all at once I stand enthralled again Within a marble minster over-seas.
I watch the solemn gold-stained gloom that creeps To kiss an alabaster tomb, where sleeps A lady 'twixt two knights' stone effigies,
And every day in dusky glory steeps Their sculptured slumber of five centuries.