Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | II. Light: Day: Night | | Night | | Joseph Blanco White (1775–1841) |
| | | MYSTERIOUS Night! when our first parent knew | |
| Thee, from report divine, I heard thy name, | |
| Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,— | |
| This glorious canopy of light and blue? | |
| Yet ’neath a curtain of translucent dew, | 5 |
| Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, | |
| Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came, | |
| And lo! creation widened in man’s view. | |
| Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed | |
| Within thy beams, O Sun! or who could find, | 10 |
| Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood revealed, | |
| That to such countless orbs thou mad’st us blind! | |
| Why do we then shun death with anxious strife! | |
| If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life? | | | | |
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