University of Virginia Library

THE morning dawns, the russet grey
Slowly avoids the opening day:
Receding from the gazing eye,
The misty shades of twilight fly.
The ruddy streaks of light appear,
To guide our western hemisphere;
While tuneful choirs responsive join
To praise the gracious Pow'r Divine,
Whose mighty hand, with sov'reign sway,
Restores, alternate, night and day.
Hail, opening morn! thy sober rays
Demand the contemplative gaze;

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Unnumber'd beauties please the sight,
And give the mental eye delight.
O dawn! thy sombre shades I love;
With thee in solitude I'll rove;
While health expansive gives the mind
To taste thy pleasures unconfin'd.
Here, free from fashions artful forms,
Benevolence the bosom warms;
Persuasive virtue charms the soul,
And reason's laws alone control.
Let others, lost in sloth, forego
The joys thy early hours bestow;
Thy zephyrs far more sweets dispense,
Than Somnus yields to drowsy sense!
Mild as thy beams of radiance shine,
May piety my powers refine;
Pure as thy mimic pearls, that spread
Their liquid beauties o'er the mead;
And, like you rising orb of day,
May wisdom guide my dubious way.