Days and Hours :: :: University of Virginia Library

At noon a shower had fallen, and the clime
Breathed sweetly, and upon a cloud there lay
One more sublime in beauty than the Day,
Or all the Sons of Time;

II

A gold harp had he, and was singing there
Songs that I yearn'd to hear; a glory shone
Of rosy twilights on his cheeks—a zone
Of amaranth on his hair.

III

He sang of joys to which the earthly heart
Hath never beat; he sang of deathless Youth,
And by the throne of Love, Beauty and Truth
Meeting, no more to part;

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IV

He sang lost Hope, faint Faith, and vain Desire
Crown'd there; great works, that on the earth began,
Accomplish'd; towers impregnable to man
Scaled with the speed of fire;

V

Of Power, and Life, and winged Victory
He sang—of bridges strown 'twixt star and star—
And hosts all arm'd in light for bloodless war
Pass, and repass on high;

VI

Lo! in the pauses of his jubilant voice
He leans to listen: answers from the spheres,
And mighty pæans thundering he hears
Down the empyreal skies:

VII

Then suddenly he ceased—and seem'd to rest
His godly-fashion'd arm upon a slope
Of that fair cloud, and with soft eyes of hope
He pointed towards the West;

151

VIII

And shed on me a smile of beams, that told
Of a bright World beyond the thunder piles,
With blessed fields, and hills, and happy isles,
And citadels of gold.