| |
| YE, whose dark foldings are the throne | |
| And palace of the monarch—Storm— | |
| Ye, whose refulgent draperies shone | |
| Above, ere earth or wave had form; | |
| And spreading like a sea of gold, | 5 |
| O’er chaos, beauty threw and grace | |
| On graceless things; and proudly told | |
| Of him who gave ye shape and place. | |
| |
| Hail! Hail! I greet ye with a smile; | |
| For ye to me speak words of power; | 10 |
| And bear my thoughts, from visions vile, | |
| Back to creation’s natal hour. | |
| Ye seem the monuments of things | |
| And ages pass’d with time away; | |
| To ye my sighing spirit clings,— | 15 |
| Memorials of the ancient day! | |
| |
| The deep and muttering thunder breathes— | |
| Your voices murmur in mine ear; | |
| The awful lightning, flashing, wreathes | |
| Your brows in dazzling smiles severe; | 20 |
| The rain-drops from your bosoms burst | |
| In torrents o’er earth’s spreading flame— | |
| Ye seem to weep, that sin hath cursed | |
| And doom’d the fallen race of men. | |
| |
| What if your changing shadows take | 25 |
| New fashionings from midnight’s shroud! | |
| What if the lights of morning break | |
| Without a trace of evening’s cloud! | |
| Ye do not speak the less of Him, | |
| And of the world’s primeval birth, | 30 |
| Than if ye moveless stood—Ye dim | |
| And threatening curtains of the earth! | |
| |
| Doth not the bright and scented flower | |
| Decay and die in winter’s gloom! | |
| Doth not returning summer’s hour | 35 |
| Revive and wake its fragrant bloom! | |
| And, from the natal hour of light, | |
| Have ye not learn’d to waste and fly | |
| Before the conquering sunbeam’s might, | |
| And clasp ye not again the sky! | 40 |
| |
| Memorials of His power, who sees | |
| Earth, air, and ocean, time and space; | |
| Who gilds with leafy crowns the trees, | |
| And tears the mountain from its base; | |
| Who bids fair summer deck the earth, | 45 |
| When winter’s form its beauty shrouds; | |
| And wakes the sparrow’s song of mirth:— | |
| His subjects hail! Illumined clouds! | |
| |
