English Poetry II: From Collins to Fitzgerald.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 568. To Night |
| | | Joseph Blanco White (1775–1841) |
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| MYSTERIOUS Night! when our first parent knew | |
| Thee from report divine, and 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. | |
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| 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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