Classic Poem

I looked on the broad setting sun,
When his flight through the wide heaven was done,
And the waves glowing bright with his fire
Rose around like a funeral pyre.

I watched the red twilight decay,
When its tints melted slowly away,
Till the light of the soft evening-star
Looked out on the blue sea afar.

I saw it hang low in the west,
Till it sank on the ocean's calm breast,
And it seemed, as its brightness grew dim,
In the mirror of waters to swim.

I turned and beheld a new day
From the low-lying clouds burst away,
And its light on their wreathed volumes throw,
Till they rolled like a deluge of snow.

I followed the round, ruddy moon,
Till she stood at the height of her noon,
And watched her deep blushes expire,
As she rose on the blue heaven higher.

I saw the far ocean grow bright
With the flow of her mellowest light,
And the waves, in their long-rolling swell,
Caught her smile as they mounted and fell.

I marked, as her pale-tinted ray
In the first flush of dawn died away,
Broad pillars of fire dart again
From the breast of the kindling main.

Then the sea flashed, like gold, in its flow,
And the clouds caught the beautiful glow,
Till the sun from the wide ocean came,
Like a god in his chariot of flame.