Sarah Coleridge (1802-1850). Phantasmion. A Fairy Tale (1837). VI. "How High Yon Lark". Alfred H. Miles, ed. 1907. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

Phantasmion. A Fairy Tale (1837)
VI. “How High Yon Lark”

By Sarah Coleridge (1802–1850)


(From Chapter XX.) HOW high yon lark is heavenward borne!
Yet, ere again she hails the morn,
Beyond where birds can wing their way
Our souls may soar to endless day,
May hear the heavenly choirs rejoice,	5
While earth still echoes to her voice.

A waveless flood, supremely bright,
Has drown’d the myriad isles of light;
But ere that ocean ebb’d away,
The shadowy gulf their forms betray,	10
Above the stars our course may run,
’Mid beams unborrow’d from the sun.

In this day’s light what flowers will bloom,
What insects quit the self-made womb!
But ere the bud its leaves unfold,	15
The gorgeous fly his plumes of gold,
On fairer wings we too may glide,
Where youth and joy no ills betide.

Then come, while yet we linger here,
Fit thoughts for that celestial sphere,	20
A heart which under keenest light,
May bear the gaze of spirits bright,
Who all things know, and nought endure
That is not holy, just and pure.