Such within ourselves we hear Oft-times, ours though sent from far Listen, ponder, hold them dear; For of God, - of God they are! XXXV. ODE. BENEATH the concave of an April sky, When all the fields with freshest green were dight, Appeared, in presence of that spiritual eye That aids or supersedes our grosser sight, The form and rich habiliments of One Whose countenance bore resemblance to the sun, When it reveals, in evening majesty, Features half lost amid their own pure light. Poised in the middle region of the air He hung, then floated with angelic ease (Softening that bright effulgence by degrees) Until he reached a rock, of summit bare, Where oft the vent'rous Heifer drinks the summer breeze. Upon the apex of that lofty cone Alighted, there the Stranger stood alone; Fair as a gorgeous Fabric of the East Suddenly raised by some Enchanter's power, Where nothing was; and firm as some old Tower Of Britain's realm, whose leafy crest Waves high, embellished by a gleaming shower! II. Beneath the shadow of his purple wings Rested a golden Harp; -he touch'd the strings; And, after prelude of unearthly sound Poured through the echoing hills around, He sang, 66 "No wintry desolations, Scorching blight, or noxious dew, "Affect my native habitations; "Buried in glory, far beyond the scope "Of man's enquiring gaze, and imaged to his hope 66 (Alas, how faintly!) in the hue "Profound of night's ethereal blue; "And in the aspect of each radiant orb ; "Some fixed, some wandering with no timid curb; "But wandering orb and fixed, to mortal eye, "Blended in absolute serenity, "And free from semblance of decline; "So wills eternal Love, with power divine. III "And what if his presiding breath 66 Impart a sympathetic motion "Unto the gates of life and death, Throughout the bounds of earth and ocean; "Though all that feeds on nether air, "Howe'er magnificent or fair, "Grows but to perish, and entrust "Its ruins to their kindred dust; "Yet, by the Almighty's ever-during care, "Her procreant vigils Nature keeps "Amid the unfathomable deeps; "And saves the peopled fields of earth "From dread of emptiness or dearth. "Thus, in their stations, lifting tow'rd the sky "The foliaged head in cloud-like majesty, "The shadow-casting race of Trees survive: "Thus, in the train of Spring, arrive "Sweet Flowers;—what living eye hath viewed "Their myriads?- endlessly renewed, "Wherever strikes the sun's glad ray; "Where'er the joyous waters stray; "Wherever sportive zephyrs bend "Their course, or genial showers descend! "Amid your pleasant bowers to sit, "And through your sweet vicissitudes to range!" IV. O, nursed at happy distance from the cares Prefer'st a garland culled from purple heath, Of thy contented Votary Such melody to hear! Him rather suits it, side by side with thee, While thy tired lute hangs on the hawthorn tree, |