EDEN.

———

BY JOHN A. STEIN.

———

Proudly down the western mountains

Rolls the monarch of the skies,

And the heavy clouds around him

In a craggy archway rise —

Seeming, with their rugged edges,

In a molten glory bright,

Glowing portals to a region

Bathed in Eden’s golden light.

And as downward from the headland

On the wooded vale I gaze,

I may view the sunbeam fainting

On the forest’s bluish haze —

And, in bronzéd lustre winding,

Mark the bright Swatara glide,

With the trees like joyous pilgrims

Flocking by on every side.

And I hear the vesper warbling

Of the wood-birds ’mid the trees —

And I breathe the odorous incense

Of the flow’rets of the leas —

And I hear the reapers singing

’Mid the nodding yellow grain,

Till the universal gladness

Wakes a rapture in my brain.

And a host of blesséd memories,

Long unthought-of, burst their trance —

And in fairy garb around me

Weave a wild, fantastic dance —

Weave a glad and restless measure

To the heart’s accordant beat,

Circling merrily around it

With their airy, agile feet.

To my soul they sing a yearning

They at times have sung before —

“Oh! that upward through the ether

I in ecstasy could soar —

Burst the shackles which confine me

To this slavish earth, and fly

With my tinted wings the ranger

Of the gleaming evening sky.”

And responsive to the cadence,

’Neath inspired Fancy’s spell,

With its fringéd wings expanding,

Leaps my spirit from its cell;

And above it hovering, whispers,

In the golden sunset light,

“Oh! for one to share the rapture

Of my Eden-seeking flight.”

By the cloud-arch bounded radiance

Of the regions of the blest —

By the empress star that gleams above,

That cloudy archway’s crest —

By the gladness of the earth beneath —

The loveliness above —

I invoke thee, and entreat thee,

Glorious spirit of my Love!

Thou art with me, oh, my idol!

Thou art trembling by my side —

And with rustling pinions crossing,

Through the lambent air we glide.

Through the glowing arch before us

Let us seek the Eden-land —

We are pilgrims of the Beautiful,

The Happy, and the Grand.