NIGHT A CLEAR MIDNIGHT HIS is thy hour, O Soul, thy free flight into Tthe wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death, and the stars. TO NIGHT Walt Whitman SWIFT I WIFTLY walk over the western wave, Out of the misty eastern cave, Where all the long and lone daylight, II Wrap thy form in a mantle gray, Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day; III When I arose and saw the dawn, When light rode high, and the dew was gone, IV Thy brother Death came, and cried, Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed, Wouldst thou me? And I replied, V Death will come when thou art dead, Sleep will come when thou art fled; Percy Bysshe Shelley NIGHT MYSTERIOUS Night! when our first parent knew Thee, from report divine, and heard thy name, Yet, 'neath a curtain of translucent dew, Bathed in the rays of the great setting Flame, Hesperus, with the Host of Heaven, came, And lo! Creation widened on Man's view. Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed Within thy beams, O Sun! or who could find, Whilst flower and leaf and insect stood re vealed, That to such countless Orbs thou mad'st us blind! Why do we then shun Death with anxious strife? If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life? Joseph Blanco White THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH HE spacious firmament on high, THE And all the blue ethereal sky, And spangled heavens, a shining frame, Th' unwearied Sun from day to day, And publishes to every land The work of an Almighty hand. Soon as the evening shades prevail, The Moon takes up the wondrous tale, Repeats the story of her birth; Whilst all the stars that round her burn, And all the planets in their turn, Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole. What though in solemn silence all Joseph Addison LUCIDA TEMPLA DEORUM N caeloque deum sedes et templa locarunt, Per caelum volvi quia nox et luna videtur, Luna dies et nox et noctis signa severa Noctivagaeque faces caeli flammaeque volantes, Nubila sol imbres nix venti fulmina grando Et rapidi fremitus et murmura magna minarum. Lucretius Ο LUCIFER IN STARLIGHT Na starred night Prince Lucifer uprose. Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend Above the rolling ball in cloud part screened, Where sinners hugged their spectre of repose. Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those. And now upon his western wing he leaned, Now his huge bulk o'er Afric's sands careened, Now the black planet shadowed Arctic snows. Soaring through wider zones that pricked his scars With memory of the old revolt from Awe, He reached a middle height, and at the stars, Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank. Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank, The army of unalterable law. George Meredith THE STAR SIRIUS BRIGHT Sirius! that when Orion pales To dotlings under moonlight still art keen With cheerful fervor of a warrior's mien Who holds in his great heart the battle-scales; Unquenched of flame though swift the flood assails, Reducing many lustrous to the lean: Be thou my star, and thou in me be seen Dark Earth since first she lost her lord from sight Has viewed and felt them sweep her as a lyre. George Meredith WINTER HEAVENS HARP is the night, but stars with frost alive, SHARP is the night, but atans with frost dome. It is a night to make the heavens our home In swarms outrushing from the golden comb, |