I.

Beings of brighter worlds! that rise at times

As phantoms with ideal beauty fraught,

In those brief visions of celestial climes

Which pass like sunbeams o’er the realms of thought,

Dwell ye around us?—are ye hovering nigh,

Throned on the cloud, or buoyant in the air?

And in deep solitudes, where human eye

Can trace no step, Immortals! are ye there?

Oh! who can tell?—what power, but Death alone,

Can lift the mystic veil that shades the world unknown?