Night and Death


 * Thee by report, unseen, 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,
 * Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
 * Hesperus with the Host of Heaven came,
 * And lo!—Creation widened on his view!
 * Who could have thought what darkness lay conceal’d
 * Within thy beams, O Sun? or who could find
 * Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect stood reveal’d
 * That to such endless orbs thou mad’st us blind?

Weak man, why to shun Death this anxious strife? If light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life?