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| WHEN the radiant morn of creation broke, | |
| And the world in the smile of God awoke, | |
| And the empty realms of darkness and death | |
| Were moved through their depths by his mighty breath, | |
| And orbs of beauty, and spheres of flame, | 5 |
| From the void abyss, by myriads came, | |
| In the joy of youth, as they darted away, | |
| Through the widening wastes of space to play, | |
| Their silver voices in chorus rung, | |
| And this was the song the bright ones sung. | 10 |
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| Away, away, through the wide, wide sky, | |
| The fair blue fields that before us lie: | |
| Each sun with the worlds that round us roll, | |
| Each planet poised on her turning pole, | |
| With her isles of green, and her clouds of white, | 15 |
| And her waters that lie like fluid light. | |
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| For the source of glory uncovers his face, | |
| And the brightness o’erflows unbounded space; | |
| And we drink, as we go, the luminous tides | |
| In our ruddy air and our blooming sides; | 20 |
| Lo, yonder the living splendors play! | |
| Away, on our joyous path away! | |
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| Look, look, through our glittering ranks afar, | |
| In the infinite azure, star after star, | |
| How they brighten and bloom as they swiftly pass! | 25 |
| How the verdure runs o’er each rolling mass! | |
| And the path of the gentle winds is seen, | |
| Where the small waves dance, and the young woods lean. | |
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| And see, where the brighter day-beams pour, | |
| How the rainbows hang in the sunny shower; | 30 |
| And the morn and the eve, with their pomp of hues, | |
| Shift o’er the bright planets and shed their dews; | |
| And ’twixt them both, o’er the teeming ground, | |
| With her shadowy cone, the night goes round. | |
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| Away, away!—in our blossoming bowers, | 35 |
| In the soft air wrapping these spheres of ours, | |
| In the seas and fountains that shine with morn, | |
| See, love is brooding, and life is born, | |
| And breathing myriads are breaking from night, | |
| To rejoice, like us, in motion and light. | 40 |
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| Glide on in your beauty, ye youthful spheres! | |
| To weave the dance that measures the years. | |
| Glide on in the glory and gladness sent | |
| To the farthest wall of the firmament, | |
| The boundless visible smile of him | 45 |
| To the veil of whose brow our lamps are dim. | |
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