VERSIFICATION
OF
Ossian’s Address to the Moon.
Daughter of heaven! fair art thou,—
The brightness of thy face,
Is pleasant to the travellers’ view,
When darkness flies apace.
The stars attend thy azure steps,
And murky clouds, O! Moon,—
Sport in thy beams, their brightening shapes,
Rejoicing as at noon.
Night’s lovely daughter in the sky,
Who doth like thee preside;
The stars asham’d thy presence fly,
Their sparkling eyes to hide.
But where dost thou thyself repair,
When dark thy count’nance grows?
Hast thou a hall like Ossian, where
Grief’s shadows thee enclose?
Fell thy fair sisters from the skies,
That nightly shone before?
They in thy presence did rejoice,
And are they now no more?
Yes! they are fall’n. O! fairest light!
Who did thy path adorn;
And thou dost oft’ retire from sight,
Thy loss of friends to mourn.
But thou thyself shalt one night fail,
Nor more in Heaven appear;
Then stars that shrunk before thee pale,
With joy their heads shall rear.
Yet, while with brightest beams begirt,
Look from thy lofty gate.—
O! burst ye winds that cloud apart,
Let her appear in state!
The shaggy mountains to illume,
And make their summits bright;
That azure waves ’midst ocean’s gloom,
May roll in rays of light!