Poem by Paul Hamilton Hayne

Below and Above

I SEE in the forest coverts
The sheen of shimmering lights;
They gleam from the dusky shadows,
They flash from the ghostly heights:

No lights of the tranquil homestead
Or the hostel warm are they;
But warring flames of the Titan fire
Which stormed through the woods to-day.

Each darts with an aimless passion,
Or sinks into lurid rest
Like the crest of a wounded serpent drooped
On the scales of its treacherous breast.

Let them idly dart and quiver,
Or sink into lurid rest--
Above, like a child-saint's face in heaven,
There's a sole, sweet star in the west.

Ah! slowly the. earth-lights wither;
But the star, like a saintly face,
Shines on, with the steadfast strength of peace,
In its God-appointed place.

1. Dancing
2. The Voice in the Pines
3. The Pine's Mystery
4. Queen Galena, Or The Sultan Betrayed
5. In a Spring Garden

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