Thou dread ambassador from earth to heaven,
Great hierarch tell thou the silent sky,
And tell the stars, and tell yon rising sun,
Earth with her thousand voices, praises God.

COLERIDGE.

SUNSET.

HE zenith spreads

Its canopy of sapphire, but the west
Has a magnificent array of clouds;

And as the breeze plays on them, they assume
The forms of mountains, castled cliffs, and hills,
Deep-rifted glens, and groves, and beetling rocks;
And some that seem far off, are voyaging
Their sun-bright path in folds of silver;—some
In golden masses float, and others have
Edgings of burning crimson.—Isles are seen,
All lovely, set within an emerald sea;
And there are dyes in the rich heavens,—such
As sparkle in the grand and gorgeous plume
Of Juno's favourite bird, or deck the scaled
And writhing serpent.-Never from the birth
Of time, were scattered o'er the glowing sky
More splendid colourings. Every varying hue
Of every beautiful thing on earth,—the tints
Of heaven's own Iris,-all are in the west,
On this delicious eve.-The eye discerns
The mountain-ridges sweep away in vast
And regular succession ;-wave on wave
Rolling and glittering in the sun,—until
They reach the utmost west. The lark is up
Exulting in the bright blue heaven;-the streams
Leap wantonly adown the laughing slopes;
And on the ear the poetry of bells,

Far borne by Auster's welcome gale, is heard;
All else is mute,-silently happy,-earth

Reposes in the sunset.-Let me gaze
At the great vision ere it pass; for now
The day-god hovers o'er the western hill,
And sheds his last fond ray.

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 :-
The mountain, and the temple, and the tower,
That float in yonder fields of air;—the isles
Of all surpassing loveliness; and seas
Of glorious emerald that seemed to flow

With him

Around the gold-fringed rocks and reefs; must all
Vanish, with thee, at the remorseless touch
Of the swift-coming twilight ?—They will fade,―
Those hues and forms enchanting. See behind
The billowy horizon once more sinks
The traveller of six thousand years.
Depart the glories of the west. The tints
Elysian change the fiercely brilliant streaks
Of crimson disappear; but o'er the hills
A flush of orange hovers, softening up
Into harmonious union with the blue

That comes a sweeping down; for twilight hastes
To dash all other colours from the sky
But this her favourite azure. Even now
The east displays its palely beaming stars:
There is no end to all thy prodigies,
O nature!

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,
Benignant, pure, and kind,
And blessing, ere she soars above,
The realm she leaves behind.

The cloudlets, edged with crimson light,
Veil o'er the blue serene,

While swift the legions of the night,

Are shadowing o'er the scene;
The sea-gull, with a wailing moan,
Up starting, turns to seek
Its lonely dwelling-place upon
The promontory's peak.

The heaving sea,-the distant hill,

The waning sky,—the woods,

With melancholy musing fill

The swelling heart that broods
Upon the light of other days,
Whose glories now are dull,
And on the visions hope could raise,
Vacant, but beautiful.

Where are the bright illusions vain,

That fancy boded forth!
Sunk to their silent caves again,

Aurora of the north!

Oh! who would live those visions o'er,
All brilliant though they seem,

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,
Along Morea's hills the setting sun;

Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright,

But one unclouded blaze of living light!