SONG OF THE STARS. WHEN the radiant morn of creation broke, And orbs of beauty and spheres of flame In the joy of youth as they darted away, And this was the song the bright ones sang: “Away, away, through the wide, wide sky, Each sun with the worlds that round him roll, "For the source of glory uncovers his face, “Look, look, through our glittering ranks afar, 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 the 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, "Glide on in your beauty, ye youthful spheres, To weave the dance that measures the years; VOL. I.-8 Glide on, in the glory and gladness sent, To the veil of whose brow your lamps are dim." A FOREST HYMN. THE groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, And spread the roof above them,―ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll back The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down, And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks And supplication. For his simple heart Might not resist the sacred influences |