I love to rise ere gleams the tardy light, Winter's pale dawn; and as warm fires illume And cheerful tapers shine around the room, Through misty windows bend thy musing sight, Where round the dusky lawn, the mansions white, With shutters clos'd, peer faintly through the gloom, That slow recedes; while yon grey spires assume, Rising from their dark pile, an added height By indistinctness given. Then to decree The grateful thoughts to God, ere they unfold To Friendship or the Muse, or seek with glee Wisdom's rich page: O hours! more worth than gold, By whose blest use we lengthen life, and free From drear decays of age, outlive the old! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A LITTLE CHRISTMAS BASKET by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SONNET: 9 by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY WHAT THE BIRDS SAID by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 18. TO THE HON. FRANCIS EARL OF HUNTINGDON by MARK AKENSIDE ASPIRATIONS: 4 by MATHILDE BLIND A TIME by ETHEL CORNELL CHAMBERS PINDARIC ODE: TO THE UNVERSITY LIBRARY AT OXFORD by ABRAHAM COWLEY |