But tell not where my cheek was laid, Nor where my careless arm was flung. As slowly steals, on angel wing, Thy light pavilion down the sky, Before thee let young seraphs sing The softest love-sick melody. And here, on thy beloved shrine, Where fragrant flames of incense glow, Pure as that heav'nly breast of thine, And fairer than the virgin snow; Here will I worship with delight, And pay the vows I made to thee ; Until thy mild and modest light. Is cradled on the heaying sea. ON THE COMET OF 1811. HOGG. How lonely is this wilder'd scene, When Silence, from her vault so blue, Steals soft o'er Teviot's mountains green, To sleep embalm'd in midnight dew! All hail, ye hills, whose tow'ring height, Like shadows scoops the yielding sky! And thou, mysterious guest of night, Dread trav'ller of immensity! Stranger of heav'n, I bid thee bail! Shred from the pall of glory riven, That flashest in celestial gale; Broad pennon of the King of Heaven ! Art thou the flag of woe and death From angel's ensign-staff unfurl'd ? Art thou the standard of his wrath, Wav'd o'er a sordid sinful world ? No; from thy pure pellucid beam, That erst o'er plains of Bethlehem shone, No latent evil we can deem, Fair herald of th' eternal throne ! Whate'er portends thy front of fire, And streaming locks so lovely pale ; Or peace to man, or judgments dire, Stranger of heav'n, I bid thee hail! Where hast thou roam'd these thousand years? Why sought these polar paths again? From wilderness of glowing spheres, To fing thy vesture o'er the wain ? And when thou climb'st the milky way, And vanishest from human view, A thousand worlds shall hail thy ray, Through wilds of yon empyreal blue. Oh, on thy rapid prow to glide! To said the boundless skies with thee! And plough the twinkling stars aside, Like foam-bells on a tranquil sea! To brush the embers from the sun; The icicles from off the pole ; Then far to other systems run, Where other moons and planets roll! Stranger of heav'n! O let thine eye Smile on a wild enthusiast's dream! Eccentric as thy course on high, And airy as thine ambient beam, And long, long may thy silver ray Our northern vault at eve adorn; Then, wheeling to the east away, Sweep the grey portals of the morn! TO THE CLOUDS. BARTON. Ye glorious pageants ! hung in air To greet our raptur'd view; For loveliness, with you ? This earth is beautiful, indeed, And in itself appeals Th beauties reveals. Its giant mountains, which ascend To your exalted sphere, In majesty austere: Its lovely valleys, forests vast; Its rivers, lakes, and seas; The sight, the sense must please. When through the eastern gates of heav'n The sun's first glories shine ; To gild the day's decline; All glorious as that orb appears, His radiance still would lose Each gentle charm, that most endears, Without your soft'ning hues. When these with his refulgent rays Harmoniously unite, Who on your splendid pomp can gaze, Nor feel a hush'd delight? 'Tis then, if to the raptur'd eye Her aid the fancy brings, In you our vision can descry Unutterable things ! Not merely mountains, cliffs, and caves, Domes, battlements, and towers, Torrents of light, that fling their waves O'er coral rocks and bowers; Not only what to man is known In nature, or in art; No seeming counterpart. As once the Seer in Patmos saw Heaven's op'ning door reveal’d, And scenes inspiring love and awe To his rapt sight unseald: So, in a faint and low degree, Through your unfoldings bright, Phantoms of glory yet to be · Dawn on the wond'ring sight. ADDRESS TO THE OCEAN. From Childe Harold. LORD BYRON. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, known, wields |