University of Virginia Library

Earth! rejoice!
Lo! from the Orient, led by yon lone star,
Bright harbinger of day, exultant Morn
Comes forth, and waves her roseate wings, and spreads
Their light upon the mountains. Upward spring
From darkness, and the solitude of night,
The green woods, and blue main, and golden sky,
Radiant as new created: each high hill
Smokes, and the mountains purpled by the beam,
Waft, as from censers streaming wide, wreath'd clouds,
That melt in brightness, as the sun, on course,
Pours down prolific fires.

Oh, Earth! shout forth
Thy gladness! ye rejoice! each in its realm,
All creatures of all kind! On loftiest Alp,
The eagle in his aery! Ye, below,
Sweet-voic'd, that charm the woodlands; or, far off
On cliffs, where never spring put forth a leaf,
Haunt the bleak rock, or mingling with the tide
Harsh notes, upon the billow, as it rolls,
Find resting.—Race untam'd! whose fleet foot prints
Its speed in sandy wastes: and ye, who make
Your lair the tangled brake, by rush of flood
Couchant on watch; and thou, whose roaring quest
Troubles the silent midnight:—Herds! that browse,
Fearful, the branch in forest glades! and ye,
In mead, or upland, that recumbent crop
In peace Spring's purple flow'ret! ye, on earth
Which creep, and ye, gay swarms on glittering wing,
That float along the noon-beam! and thou, last,
Scarce less than angel! thou, divinely crown'd
With glory, Man, o'er all below supreme,
In image of thy Maker, bearing rule,
Lift up the hymn of gratulation!—

“Hail,
“Creator! day by day, th' illumin'd world
“Drinks of yon orb existence: each green herb
“Lifts to the light its strength: each flexile shoot
“Bends sunward: and its living lustre gives
“Rich odours to each fragrant plant, and paints
“All nature: hill and dale, and flow'ry mead,
“Each bud that gems the spring, each leaf that gilds
“Th' autumnal wood. Above, heav'n's glist'ning arch
“Beams back its rays: below, the diamond drinks
“Its brightness: and the many-colour'd hues
“Harmonious, gliding down the glossy neck
“Of the eye-spangled bird; or what breaks off
“In sparkles from the rippling brook, or blaze
“Of summer ocean: and, beneath its beam,
“The vital spirit of creation, spreads
“And kindles into birth; and all around
“'Tis redolence, 'tis beauty, youth, and joy.”
[OMITTED]
[OMITTED]

Go, then, oh Man! and tame the ground: thy doom:
Forgetful not, that o'er thy toil, yon orb
Holds ceaseless charge. For thee the Sun leads on
The Seasons: each, in grateful change, ordain'd
For kindest ministration. Winter cleaves
The congregated clouds, and downward pours
Large floods beneficent: or, spreading wide
O'er the bleak North his snowy mantle, views
The fresh blade sprout beneath, and fruits, whereon
The wand'ring rein-deer browses. Spring, for thee
Comes jubilant: the free rill flows, and flow'rs
Wake at her carol: and her playful train
Young Zephyrus, and May, that trips in dew,
On the green thorn fair garlands hang, and paint
Each purple bud, robing in gay attire
The promise of the year: the air mean-while
Wafts fragrance, and from bush and bow'r the bird
Trills ceaseless melody, and all that live
In very life have joyance. Next, beneath
Blue heav'n, her bright cheek flush'd with fervent noon,
Proud Summer o'er the bristling champain spreads
Its golden garniture; and where the bud
Fresh bloom'd, with mellowing sun-beams swells the fruit
Luxuriant. Lastly, gathering up the year
With shout, and song, and rustic revelry,
Autumn his brow with nodding wheat-sheaf wreathes,
Whence the full seed-grain falls: nor song, nor shouts
Cease, while his foot, crushing the vintage, drains
Its purple flood.—Go, then, and tame the ground,
Thy sentence.

Thus they went, whose foot first trod
This earth: how chang'd of that, which Love divine
Adorn'd, when Wisdom hallow'd its own work!
Sin enter'd, and despoil'd the bow'rs of bliss:
Death triumph'd, and the gates on Eden clos'd
For ever.—Ah, I see them, as they pass
In speechless anguish: him, the Sire of Man,
And Eve, our general Mother. Slow they bend
From Paradise, nor cast one look behind,
Lest worse befall:—if worse!—for under foot,
Fit entrance to the vale of tears, rank thorns
Shot, intermingled, and th' unfruitful growth
Of thistles bristling upward. Over head
Thick clouds and darkness: and the tempest low'r'd,
And the rain beat, and floods were heard to rush
Terrific. Oh for them, who ne'er had seen
Cloud other, than the veil, through which the Sun
Gleam'd soften'd, or gray Twilight, bringing on
Cool shadowy rest: and never had they felt
Show'r, save the mist, which duly from the earth
Went up, and water'd all: nor ruder sound
Heard, than the flow of fountain, or light play
Of leaf, whose murmur lull'd them to repose
Within their nuptial arbor. Oh, for them!
So, on they went: he first, to smooth a path
For Eve, who faintly follow'd. And the day
Was drawing to its close, and sore fatigue
Came, company'd by famine. Then, our Sire
Felt the dire burden of his crime: and loud
His groan burst forth: not thus meek Eve; no sigh,
No murmur spake her anguish, as, o'ercome,
She sank on Adam's breast.—View them, sole Pair,
The husband wipes away the drops of death
That stand on her chill brow. And lo! the clouds
Disparting, and the mists in gather'd wreaths
Bear their dark burden off. The rain is ceas'd,
The wind is lull'd, and full the sun-beam falls
On Eve, beneath whose genial warmth her pulse
Leaps jocund, and the rose relumes her cheek:
Not vainly: for, before them, in near view,
Fair-opening amid fence of mountains, bloom'd
A garden wilderness: a beauteous spot
Selected.—Far around the wild waste low'r'd.—
A little spot, which he who in his wrath
Remembers mercy, had afore prepar'd
Their dwelling. Then fair Hope reviv'd, when first
On this, their exile seat, the Sun, unveil'd,
Shone out; and earth, a second Eden, bloom'd
Beneath them:—Adam, then, stedfast of faith,
Mus'd on the promis'd seed, in awful trance
Prophetic. But thou, Eve, with sprightlier sense
Of pleasure:—“Here, too, Peace resides: here, too,
“Heav'n opes its arch of azure, and these woods
“Wave verdure. Here, on blooming sprays, gay birds
“Greet us with welcome song, and trick in the beam
“Their painted plumes. And lo! fair flocks and herds,
“From underneath thick shades, that fenc'd the storm,
“Move harmless, pasturing the green blade, their young
“Frisking around. Hail, too, ye fruits! whereon
“The golden sun looks ripening. Hail, gay flow'rs,
“That, shaking off the dew, rise on your stalks
“Exultant! Thou, too, dwell'st in this thy world,
“Father of Mercy!”—

And, when now the sun
With ampler orb hung on the mountain heights,
And now, ere set, wheel'd slowly thro' the pomp
That grac'd its going down, rich retinue
Of clouds accompaning, whose canopy
Emblazon'd the broad firmament above,
With gold, with purple, and with roseate gleams
Gorgeously rob'd: “Scarce glorious more (she cried)
“Thy lustre: scarce more beauteous Eden bow'rs
“Glisten'd beneath the majesty of heav'n
“Descending, when on wing the Seraphim
“And Cherubs came attendant, as God deign'd
“To walk on earth with Adam.” So the day
Clos'd, and their voice went grateful up to heav'n.