Classic Poem

CANTO II.

Endless the wonders of creating Pow'r
On earth, but chief on high through Heav'n display'd,
There shines the full magnificence unveil'd
Of Majesty divine: refulgent there
Ten thousand suns blaze forth, with each his train
Of worlds dependent, all beneath the eye
And equal rule of one eternal Lord!
To those bright climes, awakening all her pow'rs,
And spreading her unbounded wing, the Muse
Ascending soars on through the fluid space,
The buoyant atmosphere, whose vivid breath,
Soul of all sublunary life, pervades
The realms of Nature, to her inmost depths
Diffus'd with quickening energy. Now still,
From pole to pole the' airial ocean sleeps,
One limpid vacancy, now rous'd to rage
By blustering meteors, wind, hail, rain, or cloud,
With thunderous fury charg'd, its billows rise,
And shake the nether orb. Still as I mount,
A path the vulture's eye hath not observ'd,
Nor foot of eagle trod, the' ethereal sphere
Receding flies approach, its circling arch
Alike remote, translucent, and serene:
Glorious expansion! by the' Almighty spread! —
Whose limits who hath seen? or who with him
Hath walk'd the sun-pav'd circuit from old time,
And visited the host of Heav'n around?
Gleaming a borrow'd light, from whence how small
The speck of earth, and dim air circumfus'd!
Mutable region, vex'd with hourly change,
But here unruffled Calm her even reign
Maintains external; here the lord of day,
The neighbouring Sun, shines out in all his strength,
Noon without night. Attracted by his beam
I thither bend my flight, tracing the source
Where morning springs, whence her innumerous streams
Flow lucid forth, and roll through trackless ways
Their white waves o'er the sky. The fountain Orb,
Dilating as I rise, beyond the ken
Of mortal eye, to which earth, ocean, air,
Are but a central point, expands immense,
A shoreless sea of fluctuating fire,
That deluges all ether with its tide.
What pow'r is that which to its circle bounds
The violence of flame? in rapid whirls
Conflicting, floods with floods, as if to leave
Their place, and, bursting, overwhelm the world!
Motion incredible! to which the rage
Of oceans, when whole winter blows at once
In hurricane, is peace. But who shall tell
That radiance beyond measure on the sun
Pour'd out transcendent! those keen-flashing rays
Thrown round his state, and to yon worlds afar
Supplying days and seasons, life and joy!
Such virtue he, the Majesty of Heav'n,
Brightness original! all-bounteous king!
Hath to his creature lent, and crown'd his sphere
With matchless glory. Yet not all alike
Resplendent: in these liquid regions pure,
Thick mists, condensing, darken into spots,
And dim the day, whence that malignant light,
When Caesar bled, which sadden'd all the year
With long eclipse. Some at the centre rise
In shady circles, like the moon beheld
From earth, when she her unenlighten'd face
Turns thitherward opaque; a space they brood
In congregated clouds, then breaking float
To all sides round: dilated some and dense,
Broad as earth's surface each, by slow degrees
Spread from the confines of the light along,
Usurping half the sphere, and swim obscure
On to its adverse coast, till there they set,
Or vanish scatter'd, measuring thus the time
That round its axle whirls the radiant Orb.
Fairest of beings! first-created Light!
Prime cause of beauty! for from thee alone
The sparkling gem, the vegetable race,
The nobler worlds that live and breathe, their charms,
The lovely hues peculiar to each tribe,
From thy unfailing source of splendour draw!
In thy pure shine with transport I survey
This firmament, and these her rolling worlds,
Their magnitudes and motions; those how vast!
How rapid these! with swiftness unconceiv'd,
From west to east in solemn pomp revolv'd,
Unerring, undisturb'd, the sun's bright train,
Progressive through the sky's light fluent borne
Around their centre. Mercury the first,
Near bordering on the day, with speedy wheel
Flies swiftest on, inflaming where he comes,
With sevenfold splendour, all his azure road.
Next Venus to the westward of the sun,
Full orb'd her face, a golden plain of light,
Circles her larger round. Fair morning star!
That leads on dawning day to yonder world,
The seat of man, hung in the heavens remote,
Whose northern hemisphere, descending, sees
The sun arise, as through the zodiac roll'd;
Full in the middle path oblique she winds
Her annual orb; and by her side the Moon,
Companion of her flight, whose solemn beams,
Nocturnal, to her darken'd globe supply
A softer daylight, whose attractive pow'r
Swells all her seas and oceans into tides,
From the mid-deeps o'erflowing to their shores.
Beyond the sphere of Mars, in distant skies,
Revolves the mighty magnitude of Jove,
With kingly state, the rival of the sun;
About him round four planetary moons,
On earth with wonder all night long beheld.
Moon above moon, his fair attendants, dance.
These in the' horizon slow ascending climb
The steep of heav'n, and, mingling in soft flow
Their silver radiance, brighten as they rise.
Those opposite roll downward from their noon
To where the shade of Jove, outstretch'd in length
A dusky cone immense, darkens the sky
Through many a region. To these bounds arriv'd,
A gradual pale creeps dim o'er each sad orb,
Fading their lustre, till they sink involv'd
In total night, and disappear eclips'd.
By this the sage who, studious of the skies,
Heedful explores these late-discover'd worlds,
By this observ'd the rapid progress tinds
Of light itself; how swift the headlong ray
Shoots from the sun's height through unbounded space,
At once enlightening air, and earth, and Heav'n.
Last utmost Saturn walks his frontier round,
The boundary of worlds, with his pale moons
Faint-glimmering through the darkness Night has thrown,
Deep-dy'd and dead, o'er this chill globe forlorn;
An endless desert, where extreme of cold
Eternal sits, as in his native seat,
On wintry hills of never-thawing ice!
Such Saturn's earth; and yet ev'n here the sight
Amid these doleful scenes new matter finds
Of wonder and delight! a mighty ring,
On each side rising from the' horizon's verge,
Self-pois'd in air, with its bright circle round
Encompasseth his orb. As night comes on
Saturn's broad shade, cast on its eastern arch,
Climbs slowly to its height, and at the' approach
Of morn returning, with like stealthy pace
Draws westward off, till through the lucid round
In distant view the illumin'd skies are seen.
Beauteous appearance! by the Almighty's hand
Peculiar fashion'd. — Thine these noble works,
Great universal Ruler! earth and Heav'n
Are thine, spontaneous offspring of thy will,
Seen with transcendent ravishment sublime,
That lifts the soul to thee! a holy joy,
By reason prompted, and by reason swell'd
Beyond all height — for thou art infinite!
Thy virtual energy the frame of things
Pervading actuates; as at first thy hand
Diffus'd through endless space this limpid sky,
Vast ocean without storm, where these huge globes
Sail undisturb'd, a rounding voyage each,
Observant all of one unchanging law.
Simplicity divine! by this sole rule,
The Maker's great establishment, these worlds
Revolve harmonious, world attracting world
With mutual love, and to their central sun
All gravitating; now with quicken'd pace
Descending toward the primal orb, and now
Receding slow, excursive from his bounds.
This spring of motion, this hid pow'r infus'd
Through universal nature, first was known
To thee, great Newton! Britain's justest pride,
The boast of human race, whose towering thought,
In her amazing progress unconfin'd,
From truth to truth ascending, gain'd the height
Of science, whither mankind from afar
Gaze up astonish'd. Now beyond that height,
By death from frail mortality set free,
A pure intelligence he wings his way
Through wondrous scenes, new-open'd in the world
Invisible, amid the general quire
Of saints and angels, rapt with joy divine,
Which fills, o'erflows, and ravishes, the soul!
His mind's clear vision from all darkness purg'd,
For God himself shines forth immediate there,
Through those eternal climes, the frame of things,
In its ideal harmony, to him
Stands all reveal'd. — —
But how shall mortal wing
Attempt this blue profundity of Heav'n,
Unfathomable, endless of extent!
Where unknown suns to unknown systems rise,
Whose numbers who shall tell? stupendous host!
In flaming millions through the vacant hung,
Sun beyond sun, and world to world unseen,
Measureless distance, unconceiv'd by thought!
Awful their order; each the central fire
Of his surrounding stars, whose whirling speed,
Solemn and silent, through the pathless void
Nor change nor error knows. But who their ways
By Reason, bold adventurer, unexplor'd,
Instructed can declare! What search shall find
Their times and seasons! their appointed laws,
Peculiar! their inhabitants of life,
And of intelligence, from scale to scale
Harmonious rising and in fix'd degree,
Numberless orders, each resembling each,
Yet all diverse! — Tremendous depth and height
Of wisdom and of power, that this great whole
Fram'd inexpressible, and still preserves,
An infinite of wonders! — Thou! supreme,
First independent Cause, whose presence fills
Nature's vast circle, and whose pleasure moves,
Father of human-kind! the Muse's wing
Sustaining guide, while to the heights of Heav'n
Roaming the' interminable vast of space,
She rises, tracing thy Almighty hand
In its dread operations. Where is now
The seat of mankind, earth? where her great scenes
Of wars and triumphs? empires fam'd of old,
Assyrian, Roman: or of later name,
Peruvian, Mexican, in that new world,
Beyond the wide Atlantic, late disclos'd?
Where is their place? — Let proud Ambition pause,
And sicken at the vanity that prompts
His little deeds: — with earth, those nearer orbs,
Surrounding planets, late so glorious seen,
And each a world, are now for sight too small,
Are almost lost to thought. The sun himself,
Ocean of flame, but twinkles from afar,
A glimmering star amid the train of night!
While in these deep abysses of the sky,
Spaces incomprehensible, new suns,
Crown'd with unborrow'd beams, illustrious shine;
Arcturus here, and here the Pleiades,
Amid the northern host; nor with less state,
At sumless distance, huge Orion's orbs
Each in his sphere refulgent, and the noon
Of Syrius, burning through the south of Heaven.
Myriads beyond, with blended rays, inflame
The Milky Way, whose stream of vivid light,
Pour'd from innumerable fountains round,
Flows trembling, wave on wave, from sun to sun,
And whitens the long path to Heaven's extreme;
Distinguish'd tract! but as with upward flight
Soaring I gain the immensurable steep,
Contiguous stars, in bright profusion sown
Through these wide fields, all broaden into suns,
Amazing, sever'd each by gulfs of air,
In circuit ample as the solar heavens.
From this dread eminence, where endless day,
Day without cloud abides, alone, and fill'd
With holy horror, trembling I survey
Now downward through the universal sphere
Already past; now up to the' heights untried,
And of the' enlarging prospect find no bound!
About me on each hand new wonders rise
In long succession; here pure scenes of light
Dazzling the view, here nameless worlds afar,
Yet undiscover'd; there a dying sun
Grown dim with age, whose orb of flame extinct,
Incredible to tell! thick vapoury mists
From every shore exhaling, mix obscure
Innumerable clouds, dispreading slow,
And deepening shade on shade, till the faint globe,
Mournful of aspect, calls in all his beams!
Millions of lives, that live but in his light,
With horror see, from distant spheres around,
The source of day expire, and all his worlds
At once involv'd in everlasting night!
Such this dread revolution: Heav'n itself,
Subject to change, so feels the waste of years:
So this cerulean round, the work divine
Of God's own hand, shall fade, and empty night
Reign solitary, where these stars now roll
From west to east their periods; where the train
Of comets wander their eccentric ways,
With infinite excursion, through the' immense
Of ether, traversing from sky to sky
Ten thousand regions in their winding road,
Whose length to trace imagination fails!
Various their paths, without resistance all
Through these free spaces borne; of various face
Enkindled this with beams of angry light,
Shot circling from its orb in sanguine showers:
That, through the shade of night, projecting huge,
In horrid trail, a spire of dusky flame,
Embodied mists and vapours, whose fir'd mass
Keen vibrates, streaming a red length of air,
While distant orbs with wonder and amaze
Mark its approach, and night by night alarm'd
Its dreaded progress watch, as of a foe
Whose march is ever fatal, in whose train
Famine, and War, and desolating Plague,
Each on his pale horse rides, the ministers
Of angry Heav'n, to scourge offending worlds!
But, lo! where one from some far world return'd,
Shines out with sudden glare through yonder sky,
Region of darkness, where a sun's lost globe,
Deep-overwhelm'd with night, extinguish'd lies,
By some hid pow'r attracted from his path;
Fearful commotion! into that dusk tract,
The devious comet, steep descending falls
With all his flames, rekindling into life
The exhausted orb: and swift a flood of light
Breaks forth diffusive through the gloom, and spreads
In orient streams to his fair train afar
Of moving fires, from night's dominion won,
And wondering at the morn's unhop'd return.
In still amazement lost the' awaken'd mind
Contemplates this great view, a sun restor'd
With all his worlds! while thus at large her flight
Ranges these untrac'd scenes, progressive borne
Far through ethereal ground, the boundless walk
Of spirits, daily travellers from Heav'n,
Who pass the mystic gulf to journey here,
Searching the' Almighty Maker in his works
From worlds to worlds, and in triumphant quire
Of voice and harp extolling his high praise.
Immortal natures! clothed with brightness round
Empyreal, from the source of light efrus'd,
More orient than the noon-day's stainless beam;
Their will unerring, their affections pure,
And glowing fervent warmth of love divine,
Whose object God alone; for all things else,
Created beauty, and created good,
Illusive all, can charm the soul no more:
Sublime their intellect, and without spot,
Enlarg'd to draw truth's endless prospect in,
Ineffable, eternity and time:
The train of beings, all by gradual scale
Descending, sumless orders and degrees:
The' unsounded depth, which mortals dare not try,
Of God's perfections; how these heavens first sprung
From unprolific night; how inov'd and rul'd
In number, weight, and measure; what hid laws,
Inexplicable, guide the moral world.
Active as flame, with prompt obedience all
The will of Heav'n fulfil: some his fierce wrath
Bear through the nations, pestilence and war;
His copious goodness some, life, light, and bliss,
To thousands: some the fate of empires rule,
Commission'd, sheltering with their guardian wings
The pious monarch and the legal throne.
Nor is the sovereign nor the' illustrious great
Alone their care: to every lessening rank
Of worth propitious, these bless'd minds embrace
With universal love the just and good,
Wherever found; unpriz'd, perhaps unknown,
Depress'd by fortune, and with hate pursued,
Or insult from the proud oppressor's brow,
Yet dear to Heav'n, and meriting the watch
Of angels o'er his unambitious walk,
At morn or eve, when Nature's fairest face,
Calmly magnificent, inspires the soul
With virtuous raptures, prompting to forsake
The sin-born vanities and low pursuits
That busy human-kind; to view their ways
With pity; to repay for numerous wrongs
Meekness and charity: or, rais'd aloft,
Fir'd with ethereal ardour, to survey
The circuit of creation, all these suns
With all their worlds: and still from height to height,
By things created rising, last ascend
To that First Cause who made, who governs, all,
Fountain of being! self-existent Power!
All-wise, all-good! who from eternal age
Endures and fills the' immensity of space;
That infinite diffusion, where the mind
Conceives no limits: undistinguish'd void,
Invariable, where no landmarks are,
No paths to guide imagination's flight.