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THE LAUGHING hours have chased away the night, | |
Plucking the stars out from her diadem; | |
And now the blue-eyed morn with modest grace, | |
Looks through her half-drawn curtains in the East | |
Blushing in smilesand glad as infancy. | 5 |
And see! the foolish Moon, but now so vain | |
Of borrowd beauty, how she yields her charms, | |
And, pale with envy, steals herself away! | |
The clouds have put their gorgeous livery on, | |
Attendant on the day. The mountain tops | 10 |
Have lit their beacons,and the vales below | |
Send up a welcoming. No song of birds, | |
Warbling to charm the air with melody, | |
Floats on the frosty breeze; yet Nature hath | |
The very soul of music in her looks, | 15 |
The sunshine and the shade of poetry! | |
I stand upon thy loftiest pinnacle, | |
Temple of Nature! and look down with awe | |
On the wide world beneath me, dimly seen. | |
Around me crowd the giant sons of earth, | 20 |
Fixd on their old foundations, unsubdued, | |
Firm as when first rebellion bade them rise, | |
Unrifted to the Thunderer;now they seem | |
A family of mountains, clustering round | |
Their hoary patriarch,emulously watching | 25 |
To meet the partial glances of the day. | |
Far in the glowing East, the flecking light, | |
Mellowd by distance,with the blue sky blending, | |
Questions the eye with ever-varying forms. | |
The sun is up;away the shadows fling | 30 |
From the broad hills, and hurrying to the west, | |
Sport in the sunshine, till they die away. | |
The many beauteous mountain-streams leap down, | |
Out-welling from the clouds,and sparkling light | |
Dances along with their perennial flow. | 35 |
And there is beauty in yon rivers path | |
The glad Connecticut. I know her well | |
By the white veil she mantles oer her charms. | |
At times, she loiters by a ridge of hills, | |
Sportfully hiding; then again with glee | 40 |
Out-rushes from her wild-wood lurking-place. | |
Far as the eye can bound, the ocean-waves | |
And lakes and rivers, mountains, vales and woods, | |
And all that holds the faculty entranced, | |
Bathed in a flood of glory, float in air, | 45 |
And sleep in the deep quietude of joy! | |
There is a fearful stillness in this place | |
A presence that forbids to break the spell, | |
Till the heart pours its agony in tears. | |
But I must drink the vision while it lasts | 50 |
For even now the curling vapors rise, | |
Wreathing their cloudy coronals to grace | |
These towering summitsbidding me away. | |
But often shall my heart turn back again, | |
Thou glorious eminence!and when oppressd | 55 |
And aching with the coldness of the world, | |
Find a sweet resting-place and home with thee. | |
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