The Awakening
How changed the scene! our parting gaze, last night,
Was on the three-hilled city’s swelling dome, -
The dome, o’erlooking from its stately height
Full many a sacred spire and happy home.
Rose over all, clouding the azure air,
A canopy of smoke, swart Labor’s sigh;
While, like a forest Winter has stripped bare,
Bristled the masts along the water’s line.
But now, the unbroken ocean and the sky
Seem to enclose us in a crystal sphere;
A new creatoin fills the straining eye;
No bark save ours, - no human trace is here!
But in the brightening east, a crimson haze
Floats up before the sun, his incense fresh of praise!
How changed the scene! our parting gaze, last night,
Was on the three-hilled city’s swelling dome, -
The dome, o’erlooking from its stately height
Full many a sacred spire and happy home.
Rose over all, clouding the azure air,
A canopy of smoke, swart Labor’s sigh;
While, like a forest Winter has stripped bare,
Bristled the masts along the water’s line.
But now, the unbroken ocean and the sky
Seem to enclose us in a crystal sphere;
A new creatoin fills the straining eye;
No bark save ours, - no human trace is here!
But in the brightening east, a crimson haze
Floats up before the sun, his incense fresh of praise!