348
LARA.
[canto ii.
CANTO THE SECOND.
I.
Night wanes—the vapours round the mountains curled[decimal 1]
Melt into mom, and Light awakes the world,
Man has another day to swell the past,
And lead him near to little, but his last;
But mighty Nature bounds as from her birth, 650
The Sun is in the heavens, and Life on earth;[decimal 2]
Flowers in the valley, splendour in the beam.
Health on the gale, and freshness in the stream.
Immortal Man! behold her glories shine.
And cry, exulting inly, "They are thine!"
Gaze on, while yet thy gladdened eye may see:
A morrow comes when they are not for thee:
And grieve what may above thy senseless bier,
Nor earth nor sky will yield a single tear;
Nor cloud shall gather more, nor leaf shall fall, 660
Nor gale breathe forth one sigh for thee, for all;[decimal 3]
Night wanes—the vapours round the mountains curled[decimal 1]
Melt into mom, and Light awakes the world,
Man has another day to swell the past,
And lead him near to little, but his last;
But mighty Nature bounds as from her birth, 650
The Sun is in the heavens, and Life on earth;[decimal 2]
Flowers in the valley, splendour in the beam.
Health on the gale, and freshness in the stream.
Immortal Man! behold her glories shine.
And cry, exulting inly, "They are thine!"
Gaze on, while yet thy gladdened eye may see:
A morrow comes when they are not for thee:
And grieve what may above thy senseless bier,
Nor earth nor sky will yield a single tear;
Nor cloud shall gather more, nor leaf shall fall, 660
Nor gale breathe forth one sigh for thee, for all;[decimal 3]
- ↑ [Compare—
"Now slowly melting into day,
Vapour and mist dissolved away."
Sotheby's Constance de Castile, Canto III. stanza v. lines 17, 18.] - ↑ [Compare the last lines of Pippa's song in Browning's Pippa Passes—
"God's in His Heaven, all's right with the world!"] - ↑ [Mr. Alexander Dyce points out the resemblance between these lines and a passage in one of Pope's letters to Steele (July 15,
