Fragment Of A Mythological Hymn To Love.[1]

Blest infant of eternity!         Before the day-star learned to move,     In pomp of fire, along his grand career,         Glancing the beamy shafts of light     From his rich quiver to the farthest sphere,             Thou wert alone, oh Love!         Nestling beneath the wings of ancient Night,         Whose horrors seemed to smile in shadowing thee.     No form of beauty soothed thine eye,         As through the dim expanse it wandered wide;     No kindred spirit caught thy sigh,         As o'er the watery waste it lingering died.     Unfelt the pulse, unknown the power,         That latent in his heart was sleeping,--     Oh Sympathy! that lonely hour         Saw Love himself thy absence weeping.     But look, what glory through the darkness beams!     Celestial airs along the water glide:--     What Spirit art thou, moving o'er the tide         So beautiful? oh, not of earth,         But, in that glowing hour, the birth     Of the young Godhead's own creative dreams.                 'Tis she!     Psyche, the firstborn spirit of the air.             To thee, oh Love, she turns,             On thee her eyebeam burns:         Blest hour, before all worlds ordained to be!                 They meet--         The blooming god--the spirit fair             Meet in communion sweet.         Now, Sympathy, the hour is thine;         All Nature feels the thrill divine,         The veil of Chaos is withdrawn,     And their first kiss is great Creation's dawn!