ODE TO CELESTIAL LOVE 409
��ODE TO CELESTIAL LOVE.
Tamer of hearts, whose life began
Long ere the transient race of man
Roamed o'er the yet uncultured earth !
Thine eyes beheld creation's birth,
And saw the heaving ocean shroud
The giant hills in billowy cloud,
While o'er the vast unbroken deep
Silence in darkness lay asleep.
Ere yet the animating breath
Swept o'er the wastes of watery death,
Thou, sleepless, in the Eternal Mind,
Watched through those ages long and blind,
In thine unbounded glance foreseeing
The chain of uncreated being.
Time didst thou rock, while yet he slept,
Till the young infant tottering crept ;
Then didst thou watch, lest he might fall —
The hoary father of us all !
Nurse him, that he might grow, aixi bless
Earth with unending fruitfulness.
Through thee the Almighty Father wrought,
While yet He brooded, wrapped in thought.
With countenance veiled, musing the fate
Of what ere long He might create.
Then, first-born of immortal race,
He smiled benignant on thy face ;
" In thee," He said, "my likeness will I cherish;
Fear not, my daughter, lest thou e'er shouldst perish
Though Time, thy son, must die when he grows old,
And all his children mingle with the mould,
�� �
