 | Poems by Miss H. F. Gould |  |
198
SUNRISE AT SEA.
The sun! the sun! he mounts yon airy steep
Below the line that bounds the rolling deep!
The beauteous orient kindles at his face;
Fast flee the shades to give his glory place.
Day's herald star, that lingered like a tear
On morn's dark eye-lash, as the sun draws near,
Sinks in her blushing cheek before his power,
Gone as a dew-drop buried in a flower.
Below the line that bounds the rolling deep!
The beauteous orient kindles at his face;
Fast flee the shades to give his glory place.
Day's herald star, that lingered like a tear
On morn's dark eye-lash, as the sun draws near,
Sinks in her blushing cheek before his power,
Gone as a dew-drop buried in a flower.
Now his warm beams are twinkling on the waves.
Hail him, great ocean, from thy deepest caves!
Give thy grand organ's bold, majestic swell:
Send the glad mermaid from her pearly cell,
Up the green islet in the soft, light air,
To hymn the sun, and spread her amber hair!
Bid all the dwellers in thy crystal coves
Come forth to greet him, through thy coral groves,
Lifting their various powers to catch the streams
Of morning glory pouring from his beams!
Behold, he shines upon thy watery hills!
Thy deep green dells his flowing raiment fills.
Thy little billows from their cradles leap
For crowns of light; then play themselves to sleep.
Hail him, great ocean, from thy deepest caves!
Give thy grand organ's bold, majestic swell:
Send the glad mermaid from her pearly cell,
Up the green islet in the soft, light air,
To hymn the sun, and spread her amber hair!
Bid all the dwellers in thy crystal coves
Come forth to greet him, through thy coral groves,
Lifting their various powers to catch the streams
Of morning glory pouring from his beams!
Behold, he shines upon thy watery hills!
Thy deep green dells his flowing raiment fills.
Thy little billows from their cradles leap
For crowns of light; then play themselves to sleep.
Drear wast thou, ocean, to the lonely bark,
When brooding night sat on thee thick and dark,
While sound, nor shape, nor shadow from the shore,
Nor cheering ray, the pathless waste stole o'er!
Then with thy rolling did'st thou seem to be
A dismal, restless, round eternity,
Whose awful mysteries yet unopened lay;
Foretokened only by a fiery spray,
And deep, unearthly voices, as they came
All dissonant, in strangeness, all the same!
More solemn this, than that primeval night
Before thy Maker said, “Let there be light.”
For then no human fear—no human thought,
With fancy's colors, on the blackness wrought
The past or future: they were yet confined
To one clear present—the Eternal Mind.
When brooding night sat on thee thick and dark,
While sound, nor shape, nor shadow from the shore,
Nor cheering ray, the pathless waste stole o'er!
199
A dismal, restless, round eternity,
Whose awful mysteries yet unopened lay;
Foretokened only by a fiery spray,
And deep, unearthly voices, as they came
All dissonant, in strangeness, all the same!
More solemn this, than that primeval night
Before thy Maker said, “Let there be light.”
For then no human fear—no human thought,
With fancy's colors, on the blackness wrought
The past or future: they were yet confined
To one clear present—the Eternal Mind.
But now, transfigured by the radiant sun,
Thy face is brightness from that glorious one.
Thy mighty heart within thee seems to burn,
With rapture glowing, at his blest return.
Touched by the rays that played on Memnon's lyre,
Thy voices melt to music with their fire,
For higher, holier notes than his, to be
Poured in the noble anthems of the sea.
Thy face is brightness from that glorious one.
Thy mighty heart within thee seems to burn,
With rapture glowing, at his blest return.
Touched by the rays that played on Memnon's lyre,
Thy voices melt to music with their fire,
For higher, holier notes than his, to be
Poured in the noble anthems of the sea.
Hail! thou great luminary! Sun, all hail!
Between two vast unfathomed seas I sail—
Above, the proud, illimitable blue—
Below, the flood no line has travelled through.
Two empires woo my sight—the deep—the sky.
Yet, who so abject, but for thee, as I?
I 've nought beneath me, where my foot may stand;
Above, no hold whereon to lock my hand;
Around, but wild, thin air to mock my grasp,
Should this frail bark her weary sides unclasp!
And thou, this fluid solitude to light,
Hast risen, a friend so cheering, warm and bright,
In undivided love, as much my own
As if just formed to shine for me alone!
Yet art thou blessing all the distant land,
Down from the mountain to the grain of sand.
Between two vast unfathomed seas I sail—
Above, the proud, illimitable blue—
Below, the flood no line has travelled through.
Two empires woo my sight—the deep—the sky.
Yet, who so abject, but for thee, as I?
I 've nought beneath me, where my foot may stand;
Above, no hold whereon to lock my hand;
200
Should this frail bark her weary sides unclasp!
And thou, this fluid solitude to light,
Hast risen, a friend so cheering, warm and bright,
In undivided love, as much my own
As if just formed to shine for me alone!
Yet art thou blessing all the distant land,
Down from the mountain to the grain of sand.
Pure type of his unbounded light and love,
Who fills the earth, and all the world above,
How great, how good, how glorious must he be
Who gives his brightness shadowed forth in thee!
Sun in thy beauty, ocean in thy might—
Winds in your freedom—heavens in your height;—
Dark must the spirit be, the vision dim,
That could not here look through you all to Him!
Who fills the earth, and all the world above,
How great, how good, how glorious must he be
Who gives his brightness shadowed forth in thee!
Sun in thy beauty, ocean in thy might—
Winds in your freedom—heavens in your height;—
Dark must the spirit be, the vision dim,
That could not here look through you all to Him!
| Poems by Miss H. F. Gould | |