TO THE LANCE-FLY.
Forth with the breezy sweep
Of spirit wings upon thy path of light,
Thou creature of the sunbeam! upward keep
Thine earth-defying flight!
The glowing west is still;
In hallowed slumber sinks the restless sea;
And heaven’s own tints have wrought o’er tree and hill
A purpling canopy.
Go—bathe thy gaudy wing
In freshened azure from the deepening sky—
In the rich gold yon parting sunbeams fling,
Ere yet their glories die.
The boundless air is thine,
The gorgeous radiance of declining day;
Those painted clouds their living hues entwine
To deck thy heavenward way.
Soar on! my fancies too
Would quit awhile the fading beauties here,
To roam with thee that waste of boundless blue!
And view yon heaven more near.
Lost—in the distant haze,
Ere my bewildered thoughts for flight were free!
Farewell! in vain upon the void I gaze,—
I cannot soar like thee!