From “Paradise Lost,” Book III.
HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born!
Or of the Eternal coeternal beam
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproachèd light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate!
Or hear’st thou rather pure ethereal stream,
...
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From “Paradise Lost,” Book VII.
“LET there be light,” God said; and forthwith Light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,
Sprung from the deep; and from her native east
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the Sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourned the while. God saw the light... -
THOU art the joy of age:
Thy sun is dear when long the shadow falls.
Forth to its friendliness the old man crawls,
And, like the bird hung in his poor cage
To gather song from radiance, in his chair
Sits by the door; and sitteth there
His soul within him, like a child that lies
Half dreaming, with half-open eyes,
At close of a... -
To claim the Arctic came the sun
With banners of the burning zone.
Unrolled upon their airy spars,
They froze beneath the light of stars;
And there they float, those streamers old,
Those Northern Lights, forever cold! -
SAY, from what golden quivers of the sky
Do all thy wingèd arrows fly?
Swiftness and Power by birth are thine:
From thy great sire they came, thy sire, the Word Divine.Thou in the Moon’s bright chariot, proud and gay,
Dost thy bright wood of stars survey;
And all the year dost with thee bring
Of thousand... -
A Wind came up out of the sea,
And said, “O mists, make room for me!”It hailed the ships, and cried, “Sail on,
Ye mariners, the night is gone!”And hurried landward far away,
Crying, “Awake! it is the day!”It said unto the forest, “Shout!
Hang all your leafy banners out!”It touched the wood-bird’s folded wing,
... -
THE Night was dark, though sometimes a faint star
A little while a little space made bright.
The night was long and like an iron bar
Lay heavy on the land: till o’er the sea
Slowly, within the East, there grew a light
Which half was starlight, and half seemed to be
The herald of a greater. The pale white
Turned slowly to pale rose, and... -
Up! quit thy bower! late wears the hour,
Long have the rooks cawed round the tower;
O’er flower and tree loud hums the bee,
And the wild kid sports merrily.
The sun is bright, the sky is clear;
Wake, lady, wake! and hasten here.Up, maiden fair! and bind thy hair,
And rouse thee in the breezy air!
The lulling stream that soothed... -
In the barn the tenant cock,
Close to partlet perched on high,
Briskly crows (the shepherd’s clock!)
Jocund that the morning’s nigh.Swiftly from the mountain’s brow,
Shadows, nursed by night, retire:
And the peeping sunbeam now
Paints with gold the village spire.Philomel forsakes the thorn,
Plaintive where... -
Pack clouds away, and welcome day,
With night we banish sorrow;
Sweet air, blow soft; mount, lark, aloft,
To give my love good morrow.
Wings from the wind to please her mind,
Notes from the lark I ’ll borrow:
Bird, prune thy wing; nightingale, sing,
To give my love good morrow.
To give my love good morrow,
...