Oh! many an hour I lingered to watch their gorgeous dyes
In soft and shadowy outlines against the purple skies;
Through their regal halls, air-woven, the parting radiance streamed,
Ever varying like the opal’s hue: and often have I deemed
They were come with tender message, in the holy hush of even,
From the Loved of years departed, spirit-guardians in Heaven!
III.
To my memory come back darkly in the stilly midnight hour,
Dim and faded now, the pictures of Life’s early glow and power,
When the world was arched with halos of hopes unmixed with fears,