THE Sun's bright teams already kindle,
Beyond the earth his chariots shine,
The stars in flaming æther dwindle,
Escape into the night divine:
And peak'd Parnassus, pathless, save
Unto the early wheel of day,
Receives the light that mortals crave,
And rolls it on its way:
The Pythia mounts the holy seat,
And morning clouds of incense fleet
From crackling myrrh.
IT was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain-tops.
INHERITANCE OF THE OLD-PERSIAN
THAT inheritance, ye pious-hearted,
Should descend to you from the departed Faith that with disciples' zeal you cherished, Held in honor in the days it perished?
When we oft have seen the monarch riding,
Gold on him, and all in golden priding,
Precious stones at which the eyelid winces
Sown like hail upon him and his princes,
Have ye envied as he thus went by?
No, but more augustly fed the eye,
When the sun upon his morning pinion,
O'er the peaks of Darnawend's dominion,
Rose and bent his bow! None thought of turning
From the sight: desire have I felt burning
Times in me a many thousand summing
With thee to do homage, and the coming
God to recognize upon His throne,
Him as Master of the Life to own,
Act deserving of the lofty sight,
And to travel onward by His light.
When the fire-orb to full circle winded
Rose, I stood as if in darkness blinded,
Beat the breast, the freshen'd members throwing Face down on the dust before the glowing.
Let there to this retrospect of brothers
Fall a wise bequest, descend to others, -
Duties strict in daily observation!
Stands instead no other revelation.
Lift the hands of every newly. born
That he may salute the sun at dawn,
Soul and body in the fire-bath dipping,
With the morning's golden freshness dripping.
To the birds for burial give over
All the dead, and every carcass cover;
All that seems impure with utmost might
From thy feeling bury out of sight.
Let each trench an even grace reveal,
That the sun may love to gild the zeal;
Trees for planting, let them stand in rows,
For to Order such a practice goes.
Through the long canals the water leading,
Let the flow preserve its lofty breeding;
Senderud from its mountain-lodges clear
Sallies forth, so let it disappear.
Keep uncheck'd the gentle lapse of water,
Make the ditches deep, and show no quarter
Newt and salamander, weeds and rushes;
Clean them out, till bright the current gushes.
Earth and water cleared of all defaces,
Glad the sun will range the airy spaces,
Unto those by whom he's fitly greeted
There are life and health and profit meted.
'Twixt your travails caught and lacerated,
Still have cheer, thus is the All lustrated:
Then may man to priestly office bidden
Strike God's image out the flint has hidden.
Flame is cheering as it sinks to embers;
Clear is Night, and soft relax the members.
In the hearth's alert and fiery feature
Ripens the crude juice of plant and creature.
Feed the wood, and have a joyful minute,
For the seeds of earthly suns are in it:
When ye pluck the cotton, whisper lowly,
This is for a wick to lift the Holy.
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