Book Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: AN ODE TO TIME; WRITTEN FOR THE TENTH VOLUME OF TIME'S TELESCOPE BY BERNARD BARTON. Spirit ! if I may call thee such, Beneath whose silent sway, Structures, defying grosser touch, In fragments fall away;? Essence, or Shadow, ?whatsoe'er Thou art;?with mingled hope, and fear, I frame this votive Lay: For feelings I can ill define With ev'ry thought of thee combine. II. I court no fabled Muses', aid To scatter spells around; For long before their presence made Parnassus classic ground, Thou from dark Chaos' depths didst spring Elate?on thy expanded wing, Which never since has fonnd, In all the boundless realms of space, One moment's tranquil resting place. Let There Be Light !?Jehovah said; And, with that Fiat, Thou, Thy wings for instant flight outspread, Becam'st?what Thou art now ! A viewless thing, whose very Name Fancy's most daring flights may tame, And furrow Wisdom's hrow: Given?and recalled?with vital breath; Thine entrance?Life !?thine exit?Death ' IV. And yet that seeming Death, which tells That we have done with Thee; And Thou no less with us;?compels Our Spirits still To Be ! And parting from Thee does but seem Like launching from some shallow stream Into a soundless sea, Upon whose thought-o'erwhelming brink Thy Cenfries into Moments shrink! V. But to that soundless, shoreless deep I now must bid adieu !? Enough it is for me to keep My subject theme in view; And all-sufficient is thy spell To wake more thoughts than tongue can tell, Or fancy cad pursue: For, short of Things Eternal, thine Must closest round our hearts entwine. ?, ? Our human hopes, onr human fears, In Thee and Thine have birth; And, hy their varied smiles and tears, Evince Thy present worth;...