The Bijou;
or Annual of Literature and the Arts
compiled by William Fraser
London: William Pickering,
1828
| [Page 16] |  |
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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