Know that the age of Pyrrha is long passed, And though thy form is eternized in stone, The sculptor’s doings cannot Time outlast, Nor Beauty live sav… - Patrick Moloney

O what an eve was that which ushered in The night that crowned the wish I cherished long!
Heaven’s curtains oped to see the night begin, And infant winds broke lightly into song;
Methought the hours in softly-swelling sound Wailed funeral dirges for the dying light;
I seemed to stand upon a neutral ground Between the confines of the day and night;
For o’er the east Night stretched her sable rod, And ranked her stars in glittering array,
While, in the west, the golden twilight trod With [burning] crimsons on the verge of day.
Bright bars of cloud formed in the glowing even
A Jacob-ladder joining earth and heaven.

Why dost thou like a Roman vestal make The whole long year unmarriageable May,
And, like the phoenix, no companion take To share the wasteful burthen of decay?
See this rich climate, where the airs that blow Are heavenly suspirings, and the skies
Steep day from head to heel in summer glow, And moons make mellow mornings as they rise;
As brides white-veiled that come to marry earth, Now each mist-morning sweet July attires,
Now moon-night mists are not of earthly birth, But silver smoke blown down from heavenly fires.
Skies kiss the earth, clouds join the land and sea,
All Nature marries, only thou art free.

I make not my division of the hours By dials, clocks, or waking birds’ acclaim,
Nor measure seasons by the reigning flowers, The spring’s green glories, or the autumn’s flame.
To me thy absence winter is, and night, Thy presence spring, and the meridian day.
From thee I draw my darkness and my light, Now swart eclipse, now more than heavenly ray.
Thy coming warmeth all my soul like fire, And through my heartstrings melodies do run,
As poets fabled the Memnonian lyre Hymned acclamation to the rising sun.
My heart hums music in thy influence set:
So winds put harps Aeolian on the fret.