In the infinite azure, star after star, How they brighten and blooin as they swiftly pass! How the verdure runs o'er each rolling mass! And the path of the gentle winds is seen, Where the small waves dance, and the young woods lean. "And see, where brighter day-beams pour, How the rainbows hang in the sunny shower; And the morn and eve, with their pomp of hues, Shift o'er the bright planets and shed their dews; And 'twixt them both, o'er the teeming ground, With her shadowy cone the night goes round! Glide on, in the glory and gladness sent, To the farthest wall of the firmament, The boundless visible smile of Him, To the veil of whose brow your lamps are dim." BRYANT. THE MILKY WAY. "Lo," quoth he, "cast up thine See yonder, lo! the galaxie, That once was brent with the hete, The cart horses gan well aspie, Of that, and let the reynés gone Till both air and Earthé brend, 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 unbuild it again. SHELLEY. A DROP OF DEW. SEE how the orient dew, Into the blowing roses, (Yet careless of its mansion new, For the clear region where 'twas born,) Round in itself encloses And, in its little globe's extent, Frames, as it can, its native element. How it the purple flower does slight, Scarce touching where it lies, But gazing back upon the skies, Shines with a mournful light, Like its own tear, Because so long divided from the sphere. Restless it rolls, and insecure, Trembling, lest it grow impure; Till the warm sun pities its pain, And to the skies exhales it back again. So the soul, that drop, that ray, Of the clear fountain of eternal day, Could it within the human flower be seen, Remembering still its former height, Shuns the sweet leaves, and blossoms green, And, recollecting its own light, Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express The greater heaven in a heaven less. White and entire, although congealed and chill; Congealed on earth; but does, dis solving, run Into the glories of the almighty sun. MARVELL. SMOKE. LIGHT-WINGED Smoke! Icarian bird, Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight; Lark without song, and messenger of dawn, Circling above the hamlets as thy nest; Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts; By night star-veiling, and by day Darkening the light and blotting out the sun; Go thou, my incense, upward from this hearth, And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame. THOREAU. |