 | Poems by William Stanley Roscoe |  |
60
TO HESPER.
Sweet harbinger of evening's fragrant hour,That sail'st the still expanse of ether blue,
Feeding the thirsting flowers with summer dew;
Ere the bright moon hath quit her eastern tow'r,
I woo thy pale ray in the hermit's bow'r;
What time the shepherd homeward sped,
His gray cloak mantled o'er his head,
Treads with fear the haunted dell,
To shun the wizard's lurking spell;
While far at distance dies away
The falling breath of day,
And faery phantoms gather round,
Enchanted worlds, and shadowy ground:
Or pallid visions of the dead
61
Now starts the warm and tranced tear,
While silence rules the vaulted sphere,
And the rapt soul spurns the earth,
Brooding o'er her heavenly birth,
And longs on angel wings to soar
In safety to the eternal shore.
O fairest planet of the mystic quire!
What hopes of promis'd bliss thy beams inspire;
That when this form on earth no more is seen,
Mix'd with the dust as it had never been,
The soul triumphant thro' the dread decay,
From the dark bourn shall wing her heavenly way,
And, soaring to the mansions of the blest,
Sink in the bosom of her God to rest!
| Poems by William Stanley Roscoe | |