TRIUMPHAL arch, that fill'st the sky When storms prepare to part! I ask not proud Philosophy To teach me what thou art -- Still seem, as to my childhood's sight, A midway station given For happy spirits to alight Betwixt the earth and heaven. Can all that Optics teach, unfold Thy form to please me so, As when I dreamed of gems and gola Hid in thy radiant bow? When Science from Creation's face Enchantment's veil withdraws, What lovely visions yield their place To cold material laws! And yet, fair bow, no fabling dreams, But words of the Most High, Have told why first thy robe of beams Was woven in the sky. When o'er the green, undeluged earth Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, How came the world's gray fathers forth To watch thy sacred sign! And when its yellow lustre smiled O'er mountains yet untrod, Each mother held aloft her child To bless the bow of God. Methinks, thy jubilee to keep, The first made anthem rang On earth delivered from the deep, And the first poet sang. Nor ever shall the Muse's eye Unraptured greet thy beam: Theme of primeval prophecy, Be still the prophet's theme! The earth to thee her incense yields, The lark thy welcome sings, When glittering in the freshened fields The snowy mushroom springs. How glorious is thy girdle cast O'er mountain, tower, and town, Or, mirrored in the ocean vast, A thousand fathoms down! As fresh in yon horizon dark, As young thy beauties seem, As when the eagle from the ark First sported in thy beam. For, faithful to its sacred page, Heaven still rebuilds thy span Nor lets the type grow pale with age That first spoke peace to man. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SHE HEARS THE STORM by THOMAS HARDY HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 7 by EZRA POUND THE PITY OF THE LEAVES by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON PLAYING IT SAFE by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS SPRING'S IMMORTALITY by H. T. MACKENZIE BELL GARIBALDI by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING TO CAROLINE (2) by GEORGE GORDON BYRON TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. CHRISTMAS EVE by EDWARD CARPENTER |