QUEEN of the silver bow! — by thy pale beam,
Alone and pensive, I delight to stray,
And watch thy shadow trembling in the stream,
Or mark the floating clouds that cross thy way.
And while I gaze, thy mild and placid light
Sheds a soft calm upon my troubled breast;
And oft I think — fair planet of the night —
That in thy orb, the wretched may have rest:
The suff'rers of the earth perhaps may go,
Releas'd by Death — to thy benignant sphere,
And the sad children of Despair and Woe
Forget, in thee, their cup of sorrow here.
Oh! that I soon may reach thy world serene,
Poor wearied pilgrim — in this toiling scene!