And throws the melons at our feet; From Lebanon he stores the land; With falling oars they kept the time. CAVE OF STAFFA. THANKS for the lessons of this spot, fit school For the presumptuous thoughts that would assign Mechanic laws to agency divine, And, measuring heaven by earth, would overrule Infinite power. The pillared vestibule, Expanding yet precise, the roof embowed, Might seem designed to humble man, when proud Of his best workmanship by plan and tool. Down-bearing with his whole Atlantic weight Of tide and tempest on the structure's base, And flashing upwards to its topmost height, Ocean has proved its strength, and of its grace In calms is conscious, finding for his freight Of softest music some responsive place. WORDSWORTH. In symmetry, and fashioned to endure, Unhurt, the assaults of time with all his hours, As the supreme Artificer ordained. WORDSWORTH. THE STORM. THE sky is changed; and such a change! O night, And storm, and darkness, ye are wondrous strong, Yet lovely in your strength, as is the light Of a dark eye in woman! Far along, From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, But every mountain now hath found a tongue, And Jura answers, through her misty shroud, Back to the joyous Alps, who call to her aloud! SUNSET. BYRON. THE moon is up, and yet it is not night: Sunset divides the sky with her; a sea Of glory streams along the Alpine height Of blue Friuli's mountains; heaven is free From clouds, but of all colors seems to be Melted to one vast Iris of the west, Where the day joins the past eternity; While, on the other hand, meek Dian's crest Floats through the azure air, an island of the blest. A single star is at her side, and reigns With her o'er half the lovely heaven; but still Yon sunny sea heaves brightly, and remains Rolled o'er the peak of the far Rhotian hill. In the infinite azure, star after star, How they brighten and bloom as they swiftly pass! How the verdure runs o'er each rolling mass! And the path of the gentle winds is seen, Where the small waves dance, and the young woods lean. "And see, where brighter day-beams pour, How the rainbows hang in the sunny shower; And the morn and eve, with their pomp of hues, Shift o'er the bright planets and shed their dews; And 'twixt them both, o'er the teeming ground, With her shadowy cone the night goes round! "Away, away! in our blossoming bowers, In the soft air wrapping these spheres of ours, In the seas and fountains that shine with morn, See, love is brooding, and life is born, And breathing myriads are breaking from night, To rejoice like us, in motion and light. "Glide on in your beauty, ye youthful spheres, To weave the dance that measures the years; Glide on, in the glory and gladness sent, To the farthest wall of the firmament, The boundless visible smile of Him, To the veil of whose brow your lamps are dim." BRYANT. THE MILKY WAY. "Lo," quoth he, "cast up thine eye, See yonder, lo! the galaxie, That once was brent with the hete, The cart horses gan well aspie, Of that, and let the reynés gone Till both air and Earthé brend, |