The Bijou

The Bijou;

or Annual of Literature and the Arts

compiled by William Fraser

London: William Pickering,

1828

[Page 16] page image and link
Night and Death
By the Rev. Joseph Blanco White

Dedicated to S.T. Coleridge, Esq. By his sincere friend, Joseph Blanco White.

MYSTERIOUS night, when the first man but knew 1
Thee by report, unseen, and heard they name, 2
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, 3
This glorious canopy of light and blue? 4


Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew 5
Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, 6
Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came, 7
And lo! creation widened on his view! 8
Who could have thought what darkness lay concealed 9
Within thy beams, oh Sun? Or who could find, 10
Whil'st fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed, 11
That to such endless orbs thou mad'st us blind? 12
Weak man! Why to shun death, this anxious strife? 13
If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life? 14
from The Bijou, 1828, p. 16
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