Classic Poem

When August glowed with fervid summer pride
And noon had faded into eventide
A fresh breeze through my unclosed lattice playing
Amid a vines young tendrils wanton straying
Asked me with voice more sweet than harp or lute
Or merry dulcimer or gentle Flute
To walk abroad & taste the balmy air
Which violets of the vale & lillies fair
Had filled with fragrance, as it o'er them breathed.
Upon the green grass in rich clusters wreathed
They lay—when the wind passed each raised its head
And o'dorous perfumes softly calmly shed
Pouring delights upon the sweeping gale
E're twiligh[t] came their beauties bright to veil
Their loveliness in sheltering leaves to fold
While clouds of night high o'er the skies are rolled
& shadows blacken meadow plain & wold

Not unheeded spoke the wind
Murm'ring in my ear
Soon I saw afar behind
The thund'rous city peer

Above its girdling green-robed hills
Above its forests wild & high
And the tower which with wonder fill[s]
Each stranger—clave the sky

No mist slept on it's head
N[o] cloud begirt it round,
& the majesty about it shed
With awe my spirit bound.
Then I turned away opprest
Toward the glories of the west
I could gaze for aye
On the proud array
Of the sunset heavens at close of day
At the radiant dyes
Which paint the skies
When Appollo to his haven hies
And bathed in seas of golden light
Diving he leaves the world to night
There the roses crimson blend
With purple bright that soft ascend
To the stainless blue
Whose heavenly hue
Robes the vault which distills translucent dew
On the thirsty earth
Giving joyous birth
To the signs of vegetable mirth
& while each clear drop is lit with glory
The pearl-strew[n] plains like a frost looks hoary

On splendour of the gorgeous west
At length I ceased to gaze
& my dazzled eyes sought in the east
The soft restoring haze;
That dusky dun-clad twilight brings
Ever on it's rosy silent wings
There a belt of paleest red
All th' horizon circled
Dimly it did wane & fade
With indistinctly melting shade
Into the cerulean sky
As it calmly rose on high
Rivalling the rainbows hue
When it blended with the blue

Eastward I took my lonely way
Attracted by that aspect mild
And as the last transcendant ray
Of the sun o'er verdant nature smiled

I came to a pile of high gaunt rocks
Whose Giant plumes were the shaggy oaks
Now grimly waving
And a mighty stream went howling by
Whose voice arose to the lofty sky
As wildly raving
It chafed its bounds of solid stone
And the desert rung with the ceaseless moan
While the caverned rocks sent back the sound
Which through all that region echoed round—

A while by that impetuous flood
Wrapped in thought I silent stood
Till splashed with spray
I turned away
& Aided by the sinking day
Emerging from that chasm wild
Where in solitude the rocks were piled
I ent[e]red a grassy plain
Embosoned in mountains towring aloft
It smiled with a garb of green herbage soft
Like emeral[d] circlets which fairies trace
When their morrice dance they merrily pace
The enormous gloom was round it cast
Of a forest of frowning Pine-wood vast
Which stretched o'er every mountain grey
Was closed all the night long
& even in meridian day
Night reigned those hills among
For blackened there a shade
By nodding branches made
And in the solemn twiligh[t] mirk
[A] hundred noisesome reptiles lurk
The matted grass or bushy brake
Conceal the slyly creep[ing] snake
While hemlock rears its baleful head
Where thickest is the darkness shed

But no loathsome creature crept
Through that flowry plain
There 'mid sweets the sk[y]lark slept
Chanting in dreams the strain
Which soon the morning skies should thrill
The air of dawn with music fill
When on its spotted breast
The first light gleamed amid some cloud
While far below in misty shroud
The earth is laid at rest

Now above the horizon bar
The quiet moon rose o'er the world
Nights banner decked with many a star
Was silently unfurled

In one continuous sheet of light
& yellow lustre swathed
Meek nature lay & faintly bright
Her hills & tree's were bathed
With floods of glory
Gushing from on high
On rocks made hoary
By splendour of the sky

The plain, I wandred o'er
Uncertain w[h]ere to go
Until I heard before——
A warbling streamlet flow
Soon I crossed the narrow brook
& my onward way I took
Till I reached a haunted dell
Down the green sides sloping fell
'Broidering moss spread o'er each bank
'Neath my footsteps softly sank
Purple violet's frequent pept
From where with closed buds they slept
Nestling in their leaves
Coming night had deepened round
On the solitary ground
And the bottom of the dell
As it far receding fell
From the fair moons silver light
Which peirced the gath'ring gloom of night
Indistinct & dark appeare[d]
Covered with a dusky veil
Through whic[h] no fair object peered
Star illumined faint & pale

From the gloom methought I heard
Music sweet ascend
Like the voice of singing bird,
Sweetly did it blend

Strain of Thrush & nightingale
In one superhuman song
Pensive as a wind-harp's wail
It poured the air along

Fairies were in the hollow green
Feasting amid wild flowers
And the harmony came from them unseen
Passing in joy the hours
I knew the trip of their little feet
By the rustling grass far down
As o'er it they flew elastic fleet
Where it waved in that region lone

I heard the song of the elves arise
And O twas sweetly flung
On the breeze as it mingled with whose signs
Thus the tiny spirits sung

Come fill with sparkling dew
Each gold & crystal cup
Let the clarion and the horn
Full joyously resound
Lo the lamps of eve are twinkling
And the stars of night are up
And the music of the night-bird
Is gushing all around
The flowers close their leaflets
And listen to the tone
Dull howling through those ancient trees
'Tis the hoarse wild winds moan

That blast has broken from its hold
With might of thunders roar
O'er the trembling vault of heaven rolled
O'er the mountains sumits hoar
Heark how it rushes
And furiously gushes
Adown that narrow vale—
The stern oaks bend
their strong roots rend
'Neath that triumphant gale

Now feirce tumult cease
Loud wind rest in peace
Restrain thy wearying
Tumultuous breath
And let a silence come
Frozen & fast as death

Now stopped the merry danceing
I heard it no more
Yet by light moon beams glancing
I saw the fairies soar

On soft & noiseless silken wing
The calm air gently winnowing
They swiftly rose on high
Then slowly disappeared
And melted in the sky

Now the hush of moonlight lay
On all the hills around
& no murmuring sign of lightsome day
Peirced the still night profound

I yet walked on unheeding
Over the lonely plain
The stars of heaven reading
Like wand'rer on the main
Whe[n] sudden the sound of a torrent fell
Loud rushing on my ear
& I saw through trees a cat'ract swell
That roared impetuous near

Strangely that ceaseless thunder broke
Those vast solitary woods
In silence dead that eloquent spok[e]
It ever rolled its floods

Eagles that shoot on wings athwart the sky
Or soar sublimely wrap[t] in solemn cloud
That build their inaccessible nests on high
Mid oaks, whose knarled trunks in homage bowed
Conceal the erie in their leafy shroud

Sleep sometimes & the Lion doth also rest
In forest den couching till close of day
Till the sun sinking in the crimson west
Shall call him forth again to hunt for prey
& for his royal food the subject beasts to slay
Huge Behemoth shakes not for aye the ground
At night he lays his vast bulk under trees
Whose thick leaves lull him to repose with sound
Of hoarsely murm'ring waters of the seas
When swell the azure waves unswept by wind or breeze.

But running brook & river
Still rush along their way
They stop their courses never
By midnight or noonday

Though stars to soothe their raving
May sweetly o'er them play
Yet still their green bank laveing
They hold the chanelled way

Though quiet moonlights streaming
Unmindful that still ray
Through emerald foliage gleaming
They churn the silver spray

How weary seems that lasting task
Still in motion on to pour
Ne'er in fixed calm to bask
Like mirror by the sounding shore
Then the trees might droop unshaken
Round the quiet bay
And the silence then might waken
Birds to chant their lay

Inarticulate anthems hymning
Perched on slender twig & bough
Their music o'er the surface skimming
While the stream rests from it's flow
& no longer past meandering
Doth eternal go

When again the river glides
From Binding chains set free
Each majestic wavelet rides
Laden with melody
Bearing it's tribute waters
Towards the boundless sea
Then in awful billows heaving
With its own loud harmony

These were my thoughts as home my steps I turned
By clouds which sailed along the horizon warned:
I cast one last glance at the lovely moon
To see if yet In the wide heavens she shone
Lo! curtaining mists o're all the sky were spread
& weary with nightly watching she'd veiled her beauteous head.