Wanderer! that stoop’st so low, and com’st so near To human life’s unsettled atmosphere; Who lov’st with Night and Silence to partake, So might it seem, the cares of them that wake; And, through the cottage-lattice softly peeping, 5 Dost shield from harm the humblest of the sleeping; What pleasure once encompassed those sweet names Which yet in thy behalf the Poet claims, An idolizing dreamer as of yore!-- I slight them all; and, on this sea-beat shore 10 Sole-sitting, only can to thoughts attend That bid me hail thee as the SAILOR’S FRIEND; So call thee for heaven’s grace through thee made known By confidence supplied and mercy shown, When not a twinkling star or beacon’s light 15 Abates the perils of a stormy night; And for less obvious benefits, that find Their way, with thy pure help, to heart and mind; Both for the adventurer starting in life’s prime; And veteran ranging round from clime to clime, 20 Long-baffled hope’s slow fever in his veins, And wounds and weakness oft his labour’s sole remains. The aspiring Mountains and the winding Streams, Empress of Night! are gladdened by thy beams; A look of thine the wilderness pervades, 25 And penetrates the forest’s inmost shades; Thou, chequering peaceably the minster’s gloom, Guid’st the pale Mourner to the lost one’s tomb; Canst reach the Prisoner--to his grated cell Welcome, though silent and intangible!-- 30 And lives there one, of all that come and go On the great waters toiling to and fro, One, who has watched thee at some quiet hour Enthroned aloft in undisputed power, Or crossed by vapoury streaks and clouds that move 35 Catching the lustre they in part reprove-- Nor sometimes felt a fitness in thy sway To call up thoughts that shun the glare of day, And make the serious happier than the gay?