22
MOONLIGHT.
That fled in youth from out the bounds of Time,
Since nothing here was equal to his thought[1]?
May God forgive him! wheresoe'er they be,
Or in the Moon, or in the sprinkled stars,
Dividing day and night with punctual love,
Or else laid up within the silent. Earth,
To bud abroad, like flow'rets, in the prime
Of Summer, when the wakeful trump shall blow;
This I pronounce without the awe of fear,
Time, were it lengthen'd out beyond the space,
That yet has pass'd o'er the created globe,
Redoubled to our sense, shall never yield
A harvest of such spirits to our hope.
When Phœbus to his billowy inn retires,
And Hesperus takes up the pleasing toil
Of giving light to this umbrageous world,
A thousand stars, inferior but divine,
Then turn our darkness into second day:
But in this intellectual world, our night
Is boundless prodigality of shade,
Since nothing here was equal to his thought[1]?
May God forgive him! wheresoe'er they be,
Or in the Moon, or in the sprinkled stars,
Dividing day and night with punctual love,
Or else laid up within the silent. Earth,
To bud abroad, like flow'rets, in the prime
Of Summer, when the wakeful trump shall blow;
This I pronounce without the awe of fear,
Time, were it lengthen'd out beyond the space,
That yet has pass'd o'er the created globe,
Redoubled to our sense, shall never yield
A harvest of such spirits to our hope.
When Phœbus to his billowy inn retires,
And Hesperus takes up the pleasing toil
Of giving light to this umbrageous world,
A thousand stars, inferior but divine,
Then turn our darkness into second day:
But in this intellectual world, our night
Is boundless prodigality of shade,
- ↑ The great, but unhappy Chatterton.
