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THE VISION.
Across his shoulder hung an ivory horn,
With jewels glittering like the rays of morn;
In his white hand he held the tuneful lyre,
And in his eyes there beamed a heavenly fire;
Approaching Oleroy, he smiling cried,—
You hate the world and all its charms deride,
You hate the world and all it doth contain,
Condemn each joy, and call each pleasure pain;
Then come, he sweetly cried, come, follow me,
Another world thy sorrowing eyes shall see.
No sooner said than swift the smiling boy
Led from the bower the wond'ring Oleroy.
Beneath a tree three sylph-like forms recline;
Each form was beauteous, and each face benign;
Beside them stood a chariot dazzling bright,
Yoked with two beauteous swans of purest white;
They mount the chariot, and ascend on high;
They bend the lash, on wingéd winds they fly;
Above the spacious globe they stretch their flight;
That globe seemed now but as a cloud of night.
Swift towards the moon the white swans bend their way,
And a new world its treasures doth display.
They halt; before them rocks and hills are spread,
And birds, and beasts, which at their footsteps fled.
Another moon emits a softer ray,
And other moonbeams on the waters play:
They wander on, and reach a darksome cave,
Against whose side loud roars the dashing wave:
These words upon its rugged front appear,—
With jewels glittering like the rays of morn;
In his white hand he held the tuneful lyre,
And in his eyes there beamed a heavenly fire;
Approaching Oleroy, he smiling cried,—
You hate the world and all its charms deride,
You hate the world and all it doth contain,
Condemn each joy, and call each pleasure pain;
Then come, he sweetly cried, come, follow me,
Another world thy sorrowing eyes shall see.
No sooner said than swift the smiling boy
Led from the bower the wond'ring Oleroy.
Beneath a tree three sylph-like forms recline;
Each form was beauteous, and each face benign;
Beside them stood a chariot dazzling bright,
Yoked with two beauteous swans of purest white;
They mount the chariot, and ascend on high;
They bend the lash, on wingéd winds they fly;
Above the spacious globe they stretch their flight;
That globe seemed now but as a cloud of night.
Swift towards the moon the white swans bend their way,
And a new world its treasures doth display.
They halt; before them rocks and hills are spread,
And birds, and beasts, which at their footsteps fled.
Another moon emits a softer ray,
And other moonbeams on the waters play:
They wander on, and reach a darksome cave,
Against whose side loud roars the dashing wave:
These words upon its rugged front appear,—
