Page:Translations from Camoens; and Other Poets.pdf/66

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64


INVOCATION.





    HUSHED is the world in night and sleep,
    Earth, Sea, and Air, are still as death;
    Too rude to break a calm so deep,
        Were music's faintest breath.
Descend, bright Visions! from aerial bowers,
Descend to gild your own soft, silent hours.

    In hope or fear, in toil or pain,
    The weary day have mortals past,
    Now, dreams of bliss, be yours to reign,
    And all your spells around them cast;
Steal from their hearts the pang, their eyes the tear,
And lift the veil that hides a brighter sphere.

    Oh! bear your softest balm to those,
    Who fondly, vainly, mourn the dead,
    To them that world of peace disclose,
        Where the bright soul is fled:
Where Love, immortal in his native clime,
Shall fear no pang from fate, no blight from time.