SUNRISE ON ETNA. 



No floating music no awaking winds 

 No human accent, sounded through the rest 

 Of dreaming Silence ; every cloud had closed 

 Its silver wings, suspended undisturbed, 

 Asleep in middle air. The wreathed mists 

 That sultry nightwinds from the valleys bore 

 Up to the mountain's bosom, lay unmoved ; 

 Some clinging to the midway forests' crest 

 Like moonlight on a thunder cloud ; some hung, 

 Like a loose avalanche, between the crags ; 

 And others trembling o'er a precipice, 

 Like solid ruin, waiting but the stir 

 Of echo from the shepherd's matin horn 

 To fall in horror. Even the sulphurous breath 

 Of the volcano's reeking spiracles 

 Rose but a little, in the still cold air, 

 Ere it congealed and fell. 



Upon the verge 



Of the exhaling crater's snowy brink 

 A traveller stood above the giant forms 

 Of solitude A solitary man ! 

 Enthusiast rapture wandering from his eye, 

 He watched the cloudy cincture of the east 

 First brighten with a slender silver rim, 

 Then beautify through purple, sanguine red 

 And blending orange streaked with crimson fire 

 Till varying into gold, uprose, with flame, 

 The immortal sun ! investing him with light, 

 With glorious light! whilefor a moment all 

 The far expansion of the soundless sea, 

 The mountain's majesty, the widening plains, 

 Reposed without a beam. What transport gushed 

 From his full heart, to feel himself upraised 

 Beyond the vision of the breathing world, 

 The sole thing living on a peak sublime 

 Of loneliness and death ! the first to meet- 

 In his aerial freedom morning's light 

 Flowing, like inspiration, from the sky ; 

 To drink, unlimited, the crystal air 

 And the vast prospect, while his soul dissolved 

 In worship of the Granduer and its God. FRANZ, 

 VOL. i. 1833. B 



