Classic Poem

VI.—ON THE DATURA ARBOREA

Majestic plant! such fairy dreams as lie
Nursed, where the bee sucks in the cowslip's bell,
Are not thy train:—those flowers of vase-like swell,
Clear, large, with dewy moonlight fill'd from high,
And in their monumental purity
Serenely drooping, round thee seem to draw
Visions link'd strangely with that silent awe
Which broods o'er Sculpture's works.—A meet ally
For those heroic forms, the simply grand
Art thou: and worthy, carved by plastic hand,
Above some kingly poet's tomb to shine
In spotless marble; honoring one, whose train
Soar'd upon wings of thought that knew no stain
Free through the starry heavens of truth divine.