Thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven, COLERIDGE. SUNSET. HE zenith spreads Its canopy of sapphire, but the west And as the breeze plays on them, they assume Far borne by Auster's welcome gale, is heard; Reposes in the sunset.-Let me gaze Farewell! farewell! Who givest beauty to the cloud, and light— Joy, music, to the earth! And must yon tints And shapes divine which thou hast formed, decay :- With him Around the gold-fringed rocks and reefs; must all That comes a sweeping down; for twilight hastes CARRINGTON. SUNSET. GOW beautiful the setting sun Reposes o'er the wave! Like virtue, life's drear warfare done, Descending to the grave; Yet smiling with a brow of love, The cloudlets, edged with crimson light, While swift the legions of the night, Are shadowing o'er the scene; The heaving sea,-the distant hill, The waning sky,—the woods, With melancholy musing fill The swelling heart that broods Where are the bright illusions vain, That fancy boded forth! Aurora of the north! Oh! who would live those visions o'er, Since earth is but a desert shore, And life a weary dream. MOIR. SUNSET AT ATHENS. LOW sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, But one unclouded blaze of living light! |