| WHEN I survey the bright | |
| Celestial sphere; | |
| So rich with jewels hung, that Night | |
| Doth like an Ethiop bride appear: | |
| |
| My soul her wings doth spread | 5 |
| And heavenward flies, | |
| Th' Almighty's mysteries to read | |
| In the large volumes of the skies. | |
| |
| For the bright firmament | |
| Shoots forth no flame | 10 |
| So silent, but is eloquent | |
| In speaking the Creator's name. | |
| |
| No unregarded star | |
| Contracts its light | |
| Into so small a character, | 15 |
| Removed far from our human sight, | |
| |
| But if we steadfast look | |
| We shall discern | |
| In it, as in some holy book, | |
| How man may heavenly knowledge learn. | 20 |
| |
| It tells the conqueror | |
| That far-stretch'd power, | |
| Which his proud dangers traffic for, | |
| Is but the triumph of an hour: | |
| |
| That from the farthest North, | 25 |
| Some nation may, | |
| Yet undiscover'd, issue forth, | |
| And o'er his new-got conquest sway: | |
| |
| Some nation yet shut in | |
| With hills of ice | 30 |
| May be let out to scourge his sin, | |
| Till they shall equal him in vice. | |
| |
| And then they likewise shall | |
| Their ruin have; | |
| For as yourselves your empires fall, | 35 |
| And every kingdom hath a grave. | |
| |
| Thus those celestial fires, | |
| Though seeming mute, | |
| The fallacy of our desires | |
| And all the pride of life confute:— | 40 |
| |
| For they have watch'd since first | |
| The World had birth: | |
| And found sin in itself accurst, | |
| And nothing permanent on Earth. | |
