NOCTURNE
As fall the dews of slumber soft and deep,
On wilderness and populated town,
Bound by the sweet influences of sleep,
Proud reason abdicates her golden crown;
Dark Lethe, of oblivious renown,
Fain would I quaff from thy forgetful streams,
In willing thralldom would I lay me down,
To court the fair companionship of dreams,
And bask within their iridescent beams.
Or linger in the vestibule of sleep,
Where blow the winds of memory from the past,
Ere yet the languid shades of slumber deep
Have o'er the sense their dormant shadows cast;
Or muse upon the infinite and vast,
Till speculations various confuse,
And thought, unmerciful iconoclast,
With shattered images the path bestrews,
Yet leads to chaos of conflicting views.
Now vanish all remembrance of the day,
Complete immunity pervade the mind,
Let fond imagination hold her sway,
With rule uncircumscribed and unconfined;
Or soaring on the wings of fancy, wind
Through mystic realms of interstellar space,
Where visions of supernal beauty bind
The drowsy consciousness in sweet embrace;
But dreamland fades, and morning comes apace.
[ as it fearlessly leaps oer the rocky wall]
"As it fearlessly leaps o'er the rocky wall
From the mountain peaks stern and hoary."
"See page [124]"