Oh! deep-enchanting prelude to repose, The dawn of bliss, the twilight of our woes! Yet half I hear the panting spirit sigh, It is a dread and awful thing to die! Mysterious worlds, untravelled by the sun! Where Time’s far-wandering tide has never run, From your unfathomed shades, and viewless spheres, A warning comes, unheard by other ears. ’Tis Heaven’s commanding trumpet, long and loud, Like Sinai’s thunder, pealing from the cloud! While Nature hears, with terror-mingled trust, The shock that hurls her fabric to the dust; And, like the trembling Hebrew, when he trod The roaring waves, and call’d upon his God, With mortal terrors clouds immortal bliss, And shrieks, and hovers o’er the dark abyss! Daughter of Faith, awake, arise, illume The dread unknown, the chaos of the tomb; Melt, and dispel, ye spectre-doubts, that roll Cimmerian darkness on the parting soul! Fly, like the moon-eyed herald of dismay, Chased on his night-steed by the star of day. The strife is o’er—the pangs of Nature close, And life’s last rapture triumphs o’er her woes. Hark! as the spirit eyes, with eagle gaze, The noon of Heaven undazzled by the blaze, On heavenly winds that waft her to the sky, Float the sweet tones of star-born melody; Wild as that hallowed anthem sent to hail Bethlehem’s shepherds in the lonely vale, When Jordan hushed his waves, and midnight still Watched on the holy towers of Zion hill! Soul of the just! companion of the dead! Where is thy home, and whither art thou fled? Back to its heavenly source thy being goes, Swift as the comet wheels to whence he rose; Doomed on his airy path a while to burn, And doomed, like thee, to travel, and return.— Hark! from the world’s exploding centre driven, With sounds that shook the firmament of Heaven, Careers the fiery giant, fast and far, On bickering wheels, and adamantine car; From planet whirled to planet more remote, He visits realms beyond the reach of thought, But wheeling homeward, when his course is run, Curbs the red yoke, and mingles with the sun! So hath the traveller of earth unfurled Her trembling wings, emerging from the world; And o’er the path by mortal never trod, Sprung to her source, the bosom of her God!