Madmoments: or First Verseattempts :: :: University of Virginia Library

Not one least Leaf is stirring in the Sky;
Yon lazyflakëd clouds hang stilly, where
The wind has wafted them, as if the Air,
With its last Breathings, faint and sleepily
Had urged them thither — softlytingëd by
The sinking Sun, their Edges glow, and there
Beneath, those Trees, which columnlike upbear
Their lazy weight, are steeped so lovelily
In purple, while the mists begin to rise
Around their Stems, and quiet as a Dream,
This soft work of Enchantment mirrored lies
In the broad surface of yon' slumbering stream!
No longer know I where I am, mine Eyes
Reel with Delight; I myself feel and seem
Dissolved into the Elements, a Beam
Of purple Sunlight, blent with this fair Whole.
Oh! that I might be ever thus; my soul
Like yon calm Stream; the Mirror in my Breast
Giving the Semblance of its inward Rest
To all reflected in it, even to
The troubled, and the fleeting Forms w'thout:
Until this rude, hard world, there in its true
Meaning reflected, should show fair as do
The clouds and Landscape in this Water here!

Which shows all as it is, and yet more clear,
Soft, and transparent, with a Magic Hue
Which its own Depth and chrystal Pureness gives!
So too in thy Soul's Depth and Purity
May be reflected truly all that lives,
There, with its Moral joined to beautify,
Like the Reflection of yon quiet Sky!
And even then, when dark and troublous Forms
Cast their deep Shadows on it, tho' they be
Gloomy without, and there foretell of storms,
Yet their Reflection, by the Light in thee
Transparent made, enables thee to see
Thro' them, the calm and cloudless Sky behind!
And tho' the storm should burst without, that is
No Reason, why it should disturb thy Bliss;
Without it is a storm, but in in thy Mind,
A calm Reflection only; and who e'er
Was by a Picture really moved to Fear,