| |
IF solitude hath ever led thy steps | |
| To the wild ocean’s echoing shore, | |
| And thou hast lingered there | |
| Until the sun’s broad orb | |
| Seemed resting on the burnished wave, | 5 |
| Thou must have marked the lines | |
| Of purple gold that motionless | |
| Hung o’er the sinking sphere: | |
| Thou must have marked the billowy clouds, | |
| Edged with intolerable radiancy, | 10 |
| Towering like rocks of jet | |
| Crowned with a diamond wreath. | |
| And yet there is a moment, | |
| When the sun’s highest point | |
| Peeps like a star o’er ocean’s western edge, | 15 |
| When those far clouds of feathery gold, | |
| Shaded with deepest purple, gleam | |
| Like islands on a dark-blue sea; | |
| Then has thy fancy soared above the earth, | |
| And furled its wearied wing | 20 |
| Within the Fairy’s fane. | |
| Yet not the golden islands | |
| Gleaming in yon flood of light, | |
| Nor the feathery curtains | |
| Stretching o’er the sun’s bright couch, | 25 |
| Nor the burnished ocean’s waves | |
| Paving that gorgeous dome, | |
| So fair, so wonderful a sight | |
| As Mab’s ethereal palace could afford. | |
| Yet likest evening’s vault, that fairy Hall! | 30 |
| Heaven, low resting on the wave, it spread | |
| Its floors of flashing light, | |
| Its vast and azure dome, | |
| Its fertile golden islands | |
| Floating on a silver sea; | 35 |
| Whilst suns their mingling beamings darted | |
| Through clouds of circumambient darkness, | |
| And pearly battlements around | |
| Looked o’er the immense of heaven. | |
| |
