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A MESSAGE FROM THE MOON.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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A MESSAGE FROM THE MOON.

[_]

A thought at Exeter, during the great Eclipse of the Sun, May 15. 1836.

The evening star peep'd forth at noon,
To learn what ail'd the sun, her sire,
When, lo! the intervening moon
Plunged her black shadow through his fire,
Of ray by ray his orb bereft,
Till but one slender curve was left,
And that seem'd trembling to expire.
The sickening atmosphere grew dim,
A faint chill breeze crept over all;
As in a swoon, when objects swim
Away from sight,—a thickening pall
Of horror, boding worse to come,
That struck both field and city dumb,
O'er man and brute was felt to fall.
“Avaunt, insatiate fiend!” I cry,—
“Like vampire stealing from its grave
To drain some sleeper's life-springs dry,
Back to thine interlunar cave;
Ere the last glimpse of fountain-light,
Absorpt by thee, bring on a night
From which nor moon nor morn can save.”
While yet I spake, that single beam
(Bent like Apollo's bow half-strung)
Broaden'd and brighten'd;—gleam o'er gleam,
Splendours that out of darkness sprung,
The sun's unveiling disk o'erflow'd,
Till forth in all his strength he rode,
For ever beautiful and young.
Reviving Nature own'd his power;
And joy and mirth, with light and heat,
Music and fragrance, hail'd the hour
When his deliverance was complete:
Aloft again the swallow flew,
The cock at second day-break crew;
When suddenly a voice most sweet,—
A voice as from the ethereal sphere,
Of one unseen yet passing by,
Came with such rapture on mine ear,
My soul sprang up into my eye,

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But nought around could I behold,
No “mortal mixture of earth's mould”
Breathed that enchanting harmony.
“How have I wrong'd thee, angry bard
What evil to your world have done?
That I, the moon, should be debarr'd
From free communion with the sun?
If, while I turn'd on him my face,
Yours was o'ercast a little space,
Already are amends begun.
“The lustre I have gather'd now,
Not to myself I will confine;
Night after night, my crescent brow,
My full and waning globe, shall shine
On yours,—till every spark is spent,
Which for us both to me was lent;
—Thus I fulfil the law divine.
“A nobler sun on thee hath shone,
On thee bestow'd benigner light;
Walk in that light, but not alone,
Like me to darkling eyes give sight:
This is the way God's gifts to use,
First to enjoy them, then diffuse;
—Learn from the moon that lesson right.”