At noon gleams blue and distant from on high—

When winds are hushed in peace, the flagging sail

Wooing in vain from Heaven the wished-for gale—

Or at bright eve, when the rich sunset’s pride

Has gemmed with shining gold their glancing tide—

No fairer spot, I ween, the radiant sun

In his broad path of light has looked upon;

And the pale moon in all her midnight round

No place of holier loveliness has found.

Nature is here in wildness. Yonder isles,