This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing To waft me from distraction: once I loved Torn ocean's roar, but thy soft murmuring Sounds sweet, as if a Sister's voice reproved That I with stern delights should e'er have been so moved. It is the hush of night, and all between There breathes a living fragrance from the shore, He is an evening reveller, who makes All heaven and earth are still,-though not in sleep, Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, BYRON. THE RAINBOW. EANTIME, refracted from yon eastern cloud, In fair proportion, running from the red The various twine of light, by thee disclosed, He wondering views the bright enchantment bend THOMSON. THE RAINBOW. RIUMPHAL arch, that fill'st the sky To teach me what thou art. Still seem, as to my childhood's sight, A midway station given, For happy spirits to alight, Betwixt the earth and heaven. Can all that Optics teach unfold Thy form to please me so, When Science from Creation's face Enchantment's veil withdraws, What lovely visions yield their place To cold material laws! And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams, Have told why first thy robe of beams When, o'er the green undeluged earth, Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, How came the world's gray fathers forth, To watch thy sacred sign! And when its yellow lustre smiled Methinks thy jubilee to keep, Nor ever shall the Muse's eye The earth to thee her incense yields, How glorious is thy girdle, cast As fresh in yon horizon dark, For faithful to its sacred page, Heaven still rebuilds thy span, CAMPBELL. THE RAINBOW. HEN the floods of the Deluge to ocean had rolled, When the valleys unfolded their blossoms of gold The voice of Jehovah brought tidings of bliss "The smoke of thine offering hath come upon high, Thou father of nations to be! And now I my Rainbow shall set in the sky, "It is for a sign that I never again With waters shall cover the earth; And the birds in the arbours shall warble their strain, And die as they died by the curse that I spoke, "And thou, Noah, thou art preserved for thy worth, To the climes of the south, to the isles the north, To publish my praises throughout every land, And the judgments of vengeance that come from my hand. "And seed-time and harvest shall duly be given To the hopes and the hands of mankind; And summer and winter, and morning and even, While earth in her orbit is destined to run, And give her green breast to the beams of the sun." KNOX. THE EVENING RAINBOW. ILD arch of promise, on the evening sky Thou shinest fair with many a lovely ray, Each in the other melting. Much mine eye Delights to linger on thee; for the day, Changeful and many-weathered, seemed to smile, But pleasant is it now to pause and view And think the storm shall not return again. Such is the smile that Piety bestows On the good man's pale cheek, when he, in peace, Departing gently from a world of woes, Anticipates the world where sorrows cease. SOUTHEY. A SUMMER CLOUD. S though an angel, in his upward flight, |