Classic Poem

While some 'mid pomp and pride and rich display
Of worldly honours spend their youthful hours,
Be mine a nobler task—when the young day
Restores to light and life fair Nature's powers,
And wakes to song the birds among the bowers,
With hermit heart amidst her scenes to stray,
To climb yon distant hills of dewy grey,
And mark the great sun ope his eastern doors;
To see once more the cloudless heavens expand
O'er the blue bosom of the happy deep,
And the pure vigils of the spirit keep;
To see the radiance of a smiling land;
And often let me so my fancy steep
In dreams of wonders by th' Almighty hand.

While some 'mid pomp and pride and rich display
Of worldly honours spend their youthful hours,
Be mine a nobler task—when the young day
Restores to light and life fair Nature's powers,
And wakes to song the birds among the bowers,
With hermit heart amidst her scenes to stray,
To climb yon distant hills of dewy grey,
And mark the great sun ope his eastern doors;
To see once more the cloudless heavens expand
O'er the blue bosom of the happy deep,
And the pure vigils of the spirit keep;
To see the radiance of a smiling land;
And often let me so my fancy steep
In dreams of wonders by th' Almighty hand.