Ode To Morning

HAIL! lovely harbinger of day,
To welcome whose returning ray
All Nature quits repose:
How sweet thro' gilded clouds to trace
Thy beauteous joy-inspiring face,
Whose tints excel the rose.
Fled from thy presence, silent Night,
Beneath the moon-beam's softer light,
Bids distant regions rest;
Now faintly glimmering o'er the sky,
The stars retire from human eye,
Behind thy radiant vest.
A busy hum pervades the air,
Thro' peopled cities wakeful Care
Pursues his daily toil;
Now o'er the plain, yet moist with dew,
Rough Labour's sons their steps renew,
To till the grateful soil.
Thou friend of Fancy, guide to Wealth,
Parent of Piety and Health,
O! may we ne'er refuse
Thy opening beauties to survey,
Nor more, to senseless Sloth a prey,
Thy early moments lose.
That when the last dread Morn shall rise,
Shall bid that sleep forsake our eyes,
By Death's strong hand imposed,
We then may wake to joy and light,
Where by the lurid shades of night,
Our day shall ne'er be closed.