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 | The heir of the world, and lesser poems |  |
In her celestial altitude of light
And melancholy beauty, far away
From earth and all its influence malign,
Lovely and lonely, virgin queen of heaven,
Careers the empress of the hymning spheres.
Her robe of pearly beams illumes the air,
That roves around her, like the tender thoughts
That beauty steals from stoic manhood, pure
And holy in their simple reverence,
And with a look as mournful and as fond
As an unheeded mother throws upon
A loved but ruined son, she gazes down
On this fair world which man has changed to one
Vast charnel house, while through yon sapphire fields
Where angels hold communion, still she bears
Her course nocturnal, with her lovely star
Of counsel oft conversing. Lovely orb!
In childhood and in youth—in weal and wo,
I have delighted to behold thee! Thou
Through my dim eye at midnight oft hast shone
Upon my heart, and quelled its bursting throbs
With one such quiet look; and I have thought,
As I gazed on thee, that thou wast a world
Fairer and happier than this cold earth,
Where virtue is attainted, and all high
And glorious things scoffed into mockery;
Ay, I have thought thee the abode of those
Who were too pure to dwell amid the stain
And taint of sin and folly, and too much
Assimilated to the worthless things
They once abode withal to meet the eye
Of everlasting purity.
And melancholy beauty, far away
From earth and all its influence malign,
Lovely and lonely, virgin queen of heaven,
Careers the empress of the hymning spheres.
Her robe of pearly beams illumes the air,
That roves around her, like the tender thoughts
That beauty steals from stoic manhood, pure
And holy in their simple reverence,
And with a look as mournful and as fond
As an unheeded mother throws upon
A loved but ruined son, she gazes down
On this fair world which man has changed to one
Vast charnel house, while through yon sapphire fields
Where angels hold communion, still she bears
Her course nocturnal, with her lovely star
Of counsel oft conversing. Lovely orb!
In childhood and in youth—in weal and wo,
I have delighted to behold thee! Thou
Through my dim eye at midnight oft hast shone
Upon my heart, and quelled its bursting throbs
With one such quiet look; and I have thought,
As I gazed on thee, that thou wast a world
Fairer and happier than this cold earth,
Where virtue is attainted, and all high
And glorious things scoffed into mockery;
Ay, I have thought thee the abode of those
Who were too pure to dwell amid the stain
And taint of sin and folly, and too much
Assimilated to the worthless things
They once abode withal to meet the eye
Of everlasting purity.
| The heir of the world, and lesser poems | |