Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion, Lured by the love of the genii that move Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream, And I all the while bask in heaven's blue smile, The sanguine sunrise, with his meteor eyes, When the morning star shines dead. As, on the jag of a mountain crag Which an earthquake rocks and swings, An eagle, alit, one moment may sit In the light of its golden wings. And when sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneth, Its ardors of rest and of love, And the crimson pall of eve may fall From the depth of heaven above, With wings folded I rest on mine airy nest, That orbéd maiden with white fire laden, Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor, May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof, And I laugh to see them whirl and flee, Like a swarm of golden bees, THE CLOUD. When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent, Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high, I bind the sun's throne with a burning zone, The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim, Sunbeam proof, I hang like a roof, The mountains its columns be. The triumphal arch, through which I march When the powers of the air are chained to my chair, The sphere-fire above, its soft colors wove, I am the daughter of earth and water, And the nursling of the sky; I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; I change, but I cannot die. For after the rain, when, with never a stain, The pavilion of heaven is bare, And the winds and sunbeams, with their convex gleams, Build up the blue dome of air— I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, And out of the caverns of rain, Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, I arise and upbuild it again. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 1* 9 Light and Color. LIGHT, everlastingly one, dwell above with the One Everlasting; Color, thou changeful, descend kindly to dwell among men F. VON SCHILLER. To Night. WIFTLY walk over the western wave, SWIFT Spirit of Night! Out of the misty eastern cave, Where, all the long and lone daylight, Wrap thy form in a mantle gray, Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day, Kiss her until she be wearied out; Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land, When I arose and saw the dawn, When night rode high, and the dew was gone And noon lay heavy on flower and tree, And the weary Day turned to her rest, Lingering like an unloved guest, I sighed for thee. NIGHT AND DEATH. Thy brother Death came, and cried, Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed, Death will come when thou art dead, Sleep will come when thou art fled; PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. Night and Death. MYSTERIOUS Night! when our first parent knew Thee from report divine, and heard thy name, Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue ? Yet 'neath the curtain of translucent dew, Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, And lo! creation widened in man's view. Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed Within thy beams, O Sun? or who could find, While fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed, That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind? Why do we then shun death with anxious strife?— If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life? J. BLANCO WHITE T The Northern Lights. 'O claim the Arctic came the sun They froze beneath the light of stars; BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR. To the Skylark. HAIL to thee, blithe spirit !— Bird thou never wert, That from heaven, or near it, In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher, From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun, O'er which clouds are brightening, Thou dost float and run; Like an embodied joy whose race is just begun. The pale, purple even Melts around thy flight; Like a star of heaven, In the broad daylight Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight, |