| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. The Awakening | | By Epes Sargent (1813–1880) |
| | | HOW changed the scene! our parting gaze, last night, | |
| Was on the three-hilled city’s swelling dome,— | |
| The dome, o’erlooking from its stately height | |
| Full many a sacred spire and happy home. | |
| Rose over all, clouding the azure air, | 5 |
| A canopy of smoke, swart Labor’s sign; | |
| While, like a forest Winter has stripped bare, | |
| Bristled the masts along the water’s line. | |
| But now, the unbroken ocean and the sky | |
| Seem to enclose us in a crystal sphere; | 10 |
| A new creation fills the straining eye; | |
| No bark save ours,—no human trace is here! | |
| But in the brightening east, a crimson haze | |
| Floats up before the sun, his incense fresh of praise! | | | | |
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