Шарлотта Элиза Диксон (Charlotte Eliza Dixon)

Lines

WRITTEN DURING THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF
THE MOON,

Lord's Day Night, June 9, 1816.

PALEST of lights! why quench thy feeble lamp?
Thou chaste, cold orb! why veil thy lurid face?
No bright oppressive beams from thy bland sphere
Cause the clos'd eye to shrink beneath their fires:
Scarce do thy silvery tinges gild the trees,
Which wave around me in luxurious green,
And seem to weep thy wan decrescent form!
Stay, mournful star! thou best belov'd of night
Shed all thy magic o'er this silent scene!
Shine inward on the past, and re-illume
The fire of mem'ry, dimm'd by sorrow's tears!
And does the fire of mem'ry cease to glow?
No fading beam! like thy obstructed light,
It dies awhile, to blaze with greater power!
Tarry amid thy sisters of the East,
Who twinkle round thy car in stellate pride,
And humbly emulate each lucent ray.
Thou spotless orb! why shrink so fast away?
Why thus retire behind that sable screen?
Hast thou of deadly crimes a lengthen'd list,
O'er which thy pensive eye retires to mourn?
Or dost thou weep the crimes of other spheres?
Dost thou behold the sins that spot our globe,
Now parallel with thy resplendent disk!
If so, alas! thou hast full cause to shrink
And redden, and retire amidst dun clouds,
To veil the crimson of thy burning cheek!
For thou dost blush, pale spark of heavenly light,
Shame's deepest tint! I oft behold the flush
Suffuse thy modest face, when o'er our hills
Thou float'st sublime in chasten'd majesty!
And well thou may'st, since deeds that shun the blaze
Of that bright fire from whence thou gain'st those beams,
Are all reserv'd to shock thy placid reign,
And fright thee from the silence of the night!
Return, mild ray! all Nature mourns thy loss!
Can planets burn with envy in their course,
That thus our jealous Earth in gradual shade
Steals o'er the surface of thy beauteous form,
In dim eclipse?
As if that ample shield
Could not extinguish ev'ry waning gleam!
See from the dusky West, a floating mass
Of blacken'd vapour rises to its aid,
And sails to where thou shed'st a dying flame!
For now a faint Lunette, all lustre lost,
Languid and pale, yon vista of dark clouds
But just betrays thee to my eager eye,
And now it closes round thee, feeble Spark,
And all that cheer'd this lonely hour is fled!
How mournful seems the sad deserted sky!
The glimmering stars, forsaken by their queen,
Die one by one, along the vault of heaven!
Soft æther sighs amid the general gloom,
And wakes to sympathy the slumbering leaves!
A kindred sadness seizes on my soul,--
Night's touching sorrow strikes a trembling chord,
I will retire, and mourn thy transient death,
Cold shrouded luminary! fare thee well!