Glances the light of Faith, so pure and free.
I marked a threatening cloud hang o'er the western sky,
And throw its blackness o'er the landscape fair,
Whence lightnings flashed, whence pealed the thunder high,
And wide re-echoed through the trembling air.
The sun broke forth, and all its dark array
Was gilded with the hues of parting day:
And thus, I said, can Hope's bright rays illume,
And richly paint the darkest days of gloom.
I saw, at twilight eve, a snowy flower—