SPLENDORS OF MORNING. PLENDORS of morning the billow-crests bright en, Lighting and luring them on to the land,— Far away waves where the wan vessels whiten, Blue rollers breaking in surf where we stand. Curved like the necks of a legion of horses, Each with his froth-gilded mane flowing free, Hither they speed in perpetual courses, Bearing thy riches, O beautiful sea! Strong with the striving of yesterday's surges, Lashed by the wanton winds leagues from the shore, Each, driven fast by its follower, urges Fearlessly those that are fleeting before; How they leap over the ridges we walk on, Flinging us gifts from the depths of the sea,Silvery fish for the foam-haunting falcon, Palm-weed and pearls for my darling and me! Light falls her foot where the rift follows after, Deep in the chambers of grottos auroral Morn laves her jewels and bends her bright knee : Thence to my dear one your amber and coral Bring for her dowry, O beautiful sea! E. C. Stedman. FANCY IN NUBIBUS. FULL MANY A GLORIOUS MORNING. ULL many a glorious morning have I seen FULL 165 Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy; Anon permit the basest clouds to ride With ugly rack on his celestial face, And from the forlorn world his visage hide, Stealing unseen to west with this disgrace : Even so my sun one early morn did shine, With all triumphant splendor on my brow; But out! alack! he was but one hour mine, The regent cloud hath masked him from me now. Yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth; Suns of the world may stain, when heaven's sun staineth. Shakspere. FANCY IN NUBIBUS. H it is pleasant, with a heart at ease, OH Just after sunset, or by moonlight skies, To make the shifting clouds be what you please, Own each quaint likeness issuing from the mould And cheek aslant, see rivers flow of gold 'Twixt crimson banks; and then, a traveller, go From mount to mount through Cloudland, gorgeous land, Or listening to the tide, with closèd sight, Be that blind bard who, on the Chian strand By those deep sounds possessed with inward light, Beheld the Iliad and the Odyssey Rise to the swelling of the voiceful sea. Coleridge. MOUNTAIN SACRAMENTS. 'OR we the mighty mountain plains have trod Both in the glow of sunset and sunrise ; And lighted by the moon of southern skies! The snow-white torrent of the thundering flood We two have watched together. In the wood We two have felt the warm tears dim our eyes O Earth, maternal Earth, and thou, O Heaven, Tell me if those can ever be forgiven, Those abject, who together have partaken Aubrey De Vere. A AFTER THE BALL. ND now the eastern sky Was kindling, not unseen, from humble copse And open field, through which the pathway wound, And homeward led my steps. Magnificent The morning rose, in memorable pomp, THE WHISPER OF THE APENNINE. 167 Glorious as ere I had beheld-in front, Wordsworth. THE WHISPER OF THE APENNINE. LISTEN, listen, Mary mine, To the whisper of the Apennine ; It bursts on the roof like the thunder's roar, Or like the sea on a northern shore, Heard in its raging ebb and flow By the captives pent in the caves below. The Apennine in the light of day Is a mighty mountain dim and gray, Which between the earth and sky doth lay; And the Apennine walks abroad with the storm. Shelley. THANKSGIVING. 'OR the lifting up of mountains, FOR In brightness and in dread; For the peaks where snow and sunshine Alone have dared to tread ; For the dark of silent gorges, Where mighty cedars nod; For the majesty of mountains I thank thee, O my God! L REAL AND IDEAL. Lucy Larcom. OOKING athwart the valley's cleft, Where nestles many a cosey farm Looking through dreamy, half-shut eyes I said, Why do we linger thus Where all is sharp and bright and clear? Seek we the pleasant land beyond, And taste of its enchantments dear. |