Felicia Hemans in The New Monthly Magazine Volume 16 1826/The Sunbeam
The New Monthly Magazine, Volume 16, Page 518
THE SUNBEAM.
Thou art no lingerer in monarchs' hall;
A joy thou art, and a wealth to all—
A bearer of hope unto land and sea;
Sunbeam what gift has the world like thee?
Thou art walking the billows, and Ocean smiles—
Thou hast touch'd with glory his thousand isles!
Thou hast lit up the ships and the feathery foam,
And gladden'd the sailor, like words from home.
To the solemn depths of the forest shades,
Thou art streaming on through their green arcades,
And the quivering leaves that have caught thy glow,
Like fire-flies glance to the pools below.
I look'd on the mountains—a vapour lay,
Folding their heights in its dark array;
Thou brokest forth—and the mist became
A crown and a mantle of living flame.
I look'd on the peasant's lowly cot—
Something of sadness had wrapt the spot;
But a gleam of thee on its casement ſell,
And it laugh'd into beauty at that bright spell.
To the earth's wild places a guest thou art,
Flushing the waste like the rose's heart;
And thou scornest not, from thy pomp, to shed
A tender light on the ruin's head.
Thou tak'st through the dim church-aisle thy way,
And its pillars from twilight flash forth to day,
And its high, pale tombs, with their trophies old,
Are bathed in a flood as of burning gold.
And thou turnest not from the humblest grave,
Where a flower to the sighing winds may wave;
Thou scatter'st its gloom like the dreams of rest,
Thou sleepest in love on its grassy breast.
Sunbeam of summer! oh! what is like thee?
Hope of the wilderness, joy of the sea!
—One thing is like thee, to mortals given,
The Faith, touching all things with hues of Heaven.
F. H.