| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | IV. “The blue heaven spreads before me” | | By James Gates Percival (1795–1856) |
| | | THE BLUE heaven spreads before me with its keen | |
| And countless eyes of brightness,—worlds are there,— | |
| The boldest spirit cannot spring, and dare | |
| The peopled universe that burns between | |
| This earth and nothing. Thought can wing its way | 5 |
| Swifter than lightning-flashes or the beam | |
| That hastens on the pinions of the morn; | |
| But quicker than the glowing dart of day | |
| It tires, and faints along the starry stream,— | |
| A wave of suns through countless ether borne, | 10 |
| Though infinite, eternal! yet one power | |
| Sits on the Almighty Centre, whither tend | |
| All worlds, and beings from time’s natal hour, | |
| Till suns and all their satellites shall end. | | | | |
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