THE AURORA BOREALIS AND NIGHT.

OFT o'er the surface creep those lustres pale

Tracking the motions of the fitful gale,
With restless interchange at once the bright
Wins on the shade, the shade upon the light.
No favoured eye was e'er allowed to gaze
On lovelier spectacle in faery days;

When gentle spirits urged a sportive chase,
Brushing with lucid wands the water's face;
While music stealing round the glimmering deeps,
Charmed the tall circle of the enchanted steeps.
The lights are vanished from the watery plains;
No wreck of all the pageantry remains.
Unheeded night has overcome the vales;
On the dark earth the wearied vision fails:
The latest lingerer of the forest train,

The lone black fir forsakes the faded plain;
Last evening sight, the cottage smoke, no more,
Lost in the thickened darkness, glimmers hoar;
And towering from the sullen dark brown mere,
Like a black wall, the mountain steeps appear
Now o'er the soothed accordant heart we find
The soft gloom deepening on the tranquil mind.
Stay, pensive, sadly-pleasing visions, stay!
Ah, no! as fades the vale, they fade away:
Yet still the tender, vacant gloom remains;
Still the cold cheek its shuddering tear retains.

The bird, who ceased, with fading light, to thread
Silent the hedge or stormy rivulet's bed,
From his gay re-appearing tower shall soon
Salute with gladsome note the rising moon,
While with a hoary light she frosts the ground,
And pours a deeper blue to ether's bound;
Pleased, as she moves, her pomp of clouds to fold
In robes of azure, fleecy-white and gold.

Above the distant hill where darkness broods
O'er all its vanished dells, and lawns, and woods;
Where but a mass of shade the sight can trace
Even now she shows, half-veiled her lovely face:
Across the gloomy valley flings her light,

Far to the western slopes with hamlets white;
And gives, where woods the chequered upland strew,
To the green corn of summer, autumn's hue.

WORDSWORTH.

MOONRISE.

OON will the Moon and all her stars be here! A smiling light proclaims her o'er yon hill; Slowly she raises up her radiant sphere, And stillness, at her smile, becomes more still. My heart forgets all thought of human ill, And man seems happy as his place of birth: All things that yield him joy my spirit fill With kindred joy! and even his humblest mirth Seems at this peaceful hour to beautify the earth.

WILSON.

MOONRISE.

OW like a queen comes forth the lovely Moon
From the slow opening curtains of the clouds,
Walking in beauty to her midnight throne!
The stars are veiled in light; the ocean-floods,
And the ten thousand streams-the boundless woods-
The trackless wilderness-the mountain's brow,
Where Winter on eternal pinions broods—

All height, depth, wildness, grandeur, gloom, below, Touched by thy smile, lone Moon! in one wild splendour glow.

CROLY.

MOONRISE.

RB of the night! thy pale still ray
Gleams on the sleeping earth;

Day's glories, which have passed away, Proclaimed thy gentler birth.

Clouds float around thee, and awhile
Thou'rt hidden from the sight;
Yet pass they o'er, and thou dost smile
Enthroned in peace and light.

Thus the dark shades that cloud the soul,
And veil faith's radiant eye,

Shall melt beneath the high control
That spreads thy beams on high.

Pale is the outline of the trees
As marked by thy dim light,
And now the chill, autumnal breeze
Fans not the veil of night.

Season of thought! when the mind feels

A pure and Heaven-sent calm, When o'er the spirit softly steals A free o'erpowering charm:

Orb of the night! when tempest tost

Or calm, still shed thy ray,

Till thy bright influence be lost

In never-ending day.

ANON,

A MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

XOW beautiful is Night!

A dewy freshness fills the silent air;
No mist obscures, nor cloud, nor speck,
nor stain,

Breaks the serene of heaven;

In full-orbed glory yonder moon divine
Rolls through the dark-blue depths.
Beneath her steady ray

The desert-circle spreads,

Like the round ocean girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is Night!

OW beautiful on yonder casement-panes
The mild moon gazes,―mark!

With what a lovely and majestic step

She treads the heavenly hills!

And oh! how soft, how silently she pours

Her chastening radiance on the scene below!
And hill, and dale, and tower

Drink the pure flood of light!

Roll on-roll thus, queen of the midnight hour,
For ever beautiful!

NEELR.

A MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

IS midnight; on the mountains brown
The cold round Moon shines deeply down
Blue rolls the waters, blue the sky

Spreads like an ocean hung on high,

Bespangled with those isles of light,
So wildly, spiritually bright;
Who ever gazed upon them shining,
And turned to earth without repining,
Nor wished for wings to flee away,
And mix with their eternal ray?

BYRON.

A MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

OW on the utmost boundary of the sight,

The rising vapours catch the silver light: Thence Fancy measures, as they parting fly, Which first will throw its shadow on the eye, Passing the source of light; and thence away, Succeeded quick by brighter still than they. For yet above these wafted clouds are seen (In a remoter sky, still more serene,) Others detached in ranges through the air, Spotless as snow, and countless as they're fair Scattered immensely wide from east to west, The beauteous semblance of a flock at rest. These, to the raptured mind, aloud proclaim Their Mighty Shepherd's everlasting name.

BLOOMFIELD.

A MOONLIGHT NIGHT.

OW calmly gliding through the dark blue sky
The midnight moon ascends! Her placid

beams,

Through thinly scattered leaves and boughs grotesque, Mottle with mazy shades the orchard slope:

Here o'er the chestnut's fretted foliage grey

And massy, motionless they spread; here shine
Upon the crags deepening with blacker night