Classic Poem

How beautiful the scene; ten thousand stars
Move in the heavens at their " own sweet will; "
The moon her higher destiny to fill,
Rideth resplendent as the shield of Mars!
The sea beneath is tranquil as a child
Hush'd by caresses on its mother's breast,
There sleeping like a statue that doth rest
By dreams unmoved. By Fancy here beguiled,
Old Ocean! I am with thee when did float
Their bark who first upon thy waves did ride,
And theirs the first to tempt the nobler tide,
Which was to waft them to strange climes remote;
Lands which Columbus oft in vision viewed,
Wandering from Court to Court in solitude!