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

One End on Land, and one on Sea,
The glorious Arch o'erspans the sky,
Beneath the Earth laughs in fresh glee,
And darkwinged Clouds before it fly!
Bright Rainbow! tempestcradled form
Of Beauty 'mid the passing storm,
That hast thy Birth and death with it,
The spirit by whose smile 'tis lit.
Thou 'mid the darkling Clouds dost sit
In calm untroubled loveliness,
As perfect as tho' thou couldst dress
Thy form in lasting glory, or
Wert born of Peace, not 'mid the War
Of Elements, in which thou livest,
And to their strife a moral giv'st.
How many times to man's dim Eye,
'Mid Heaven's gorgeous pageantry
Of Tempestclouds hast thou appeared,
A Peacepledge, by a World revered:
By a relenting Maker placed,
A token of high Wrath effaced!
Still in thy primal Glory, thou
Do'st span with manycolored Bow
The Heavens above and Earth below.
And all beneath thy cloudarch seems
As beautiful, as Hopes young dreams!
But thou, unlike to these, canst live
While round thee Storm and Darkness strive,
'Mid these a bright reality
While cold Experience bids them die!
Thou art a Type of no mean power,
Of Faith, who has like thee the dower

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Of calm, enduring Loveliness;
Who o'er all griefs which here distress,
All clouds of passing pain and care,
That dim this lowbreathed nether air,
Can shed her pure celestial light,
Like thine, a Peacepledge everbright;
And like thine too, her radiant form
Shines brightest in the darkest storm!
Thus Nature in her silent shows,
Teaches us deeper truths than Science knows.
Lovely to the sage's eye
As to the Child's, who asks not why
Thou spann'st the Heavens with thy Bow,
Content to see, to feel and know
Thy Glory, in his young delight.
For all forms of Sense and Sight
Which in Nature's realms we view,
All are perfect, all are true;
Whether with childhood's simple eye
We gaze in awe and ecstacy,
Or with proud Philosophy,
Dealing in rule and theory,
To God's high secrets we aspire,
And the «first cause» of things enquire!
Rainbow! be thou still to me
A Beauty and a Mystery,
And when mine Eyes agedim shall grow,
Still shine thou as of yore, e'en so
As in my boyish Days, a sign,
A Something wondrous and Divine,
Where Faith may fitly exercise
Her aspirations, and uprise
From these vain, bounded shows of Time,
Unto thy vast and ampler clime;
For from the Heavensbosom thou
With Heavenspeace art poured below:

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Building thy arch of Cloud and Rain,
The sunshine's child, then lost again,
When thou hast stamped upon the storm
The Impress of thy radiant form:
'Mid elements of passing strife,
The symbol of a happier life.
A second Rainbow 'mid the Storm
Unfolds the shadow of thy form,
'Tis gone, and like a Soul set free
From Earthliness, thy Shape we see
Melting into Eternity!