WHEN the sea is still as glass,
And the whispering breezes pass
On messages from zone to zone, or waft from pole to pole
A dewdrop of Savannah sweet,
A particle of Arab heat—
Commingling Nature's essences in one harmonious whole;

When the bright magnetic stars
Seem leaning from their cars,
As drawn by some kind influence from clear familiar skies;
And thoughts, as dreams misprized,
Great truths unrecognised!
Strike sudden chords from forth the world's eternal harmonies;

When the sun sets in the sea,
Like Time in Eternity,
And space beyond horizon seems stretching without end:
Then come to an arbour still,
Half-way up a western hill,
That I destined for such an hour, and planted for such a friend.

A cedar from Assyria,
A willow from St. Helena,
A vine from classic Tusculum, their branches intertwine;
A lily-rose from Mexico,
The vegetable southern snow!
Stands side by side—exotic bride!—with Norway's Scaldic pine.

The seat is formed of precious stone:
A fragment from old Babylon,
From Theseus' wall—Carthago's fall—perchance the Roman's seat!
From Theban Sphinx's heartless breast,
From Aztec ruin of the west,
And a cornice from the Capitol is spread beneath our feet.

And thence you may behold
A map of earth unrolled,
With the steamers on the ocean and the railways on the land;
And hear the city's hum
Up the hillside deadened come—
Like the last ebb of the waters on a far-receding strand.

Oh! there methinks 'twere sweet
To sit in converse meet,
With palpable progression before our vision spread;
And trace the mighty plan
Of the destinies of man,
Measuring the living by the stature of the dead.