Page:Poetical Remains.pdf/37

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DESPONDENCY AND ASPIRATION.
5

With dreamy motion! Silvery seas were there
    Lit by large dazzling stars, and arch'd by skies
    Of Southern midnight's most transparent dyes,
And gemm'd with many an island, wildly fair,
Which floated past me into orient day,
Still gathering lustre on th' illumin'd way,
Till its high groves of wondrous flowering trees
        Colour'd the silvery seas.

And then a glorious mountain-chain uprose,
        Height above spiry height!
A soaring solitude of woods and snows,
        All steep'd in golden light!
While as it pass'd, those regal peaks unveiling,
    I heard, methought, a waving of dread wings
And mighty sounds, as if the vision hailing,
    From lyres that quiver'd through ten thousand strings:
Or as if waters forth to music leaping,