In tender light, and softly shadow’d round,
Spreads yon smooth bay, with tall and lesser tower;
The distant land, by domes and turrets crown’d,
Gleams, yet almost eludes the visual power.
That slender pinnace, with its folded sails,
Seems o’er the glassy flood to glide serene,
Heedless of altering skies, tempestuous gales,
And future dread convulsions of the scene.
Now let us moralize this pencil’d page;
Perchance, dear maid, it shall admonish thee;
Its traits may oft thy serious thoughts engage,
The towers prove mystic, typical the sea!
View’d as life’s sea the calm and flattering wave;
As Truth and Wisdom’s strength the ampler tower,
Whose fires from wreck may human vessels save
When Fate or Passion’s whelming billows roar.
Should, from yon lesser tower, the lamp of love
Fling o’er the veering deep its roseate ray,
Tho’ not like those, the guardian fires, that prove
Quenchless by storms, rage madly as they may,
Yet, if with tender HERO’S watchful care
Thou striv’st to shield it from tempestuous breath,
May no congenial sorrow prompt thy tear,
Nor hovering danger, nor untimely death!
And be those far-off palaces and fanes
A prosperous city, whence thy bark may bear
Wealth, that used wisely, peace of mind obtains.
Wealth, that pale indigence may smiling share!
Then while, amid the rocks and shoals of time,
The frail love-lighted lamp may gild thy way,
From Wisdom’s tower her fires shall stream sublime,
And mark thy course to Realms of Nightless Day.