| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | | To Night | | By Joseph Blanco White (1775–1839) |
| | | MYSTERIOUS Night! when our first parent knew | |
| Thee from report divine, and heard thy name, | |
| Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, | |
| This glorious canopy of light and blue? | |
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| Yet ’neath a curtain of translucent dew, | 5 |
| Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, | |
| Hesperus with the host of heaven came, | |
| And lo! Creation widened in man’s view. | |
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| Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed | |
| Within thy beams, O Sun! or who could find, | 10 |
| Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood revealed, | |
| That to such countless orbs thou mad’st us blind! | |
| Why do we then shun Death with anxious strife? | |
| If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life? | | | | |
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