Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SUNBEAM, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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THE SUNBEAM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Thou art no lingerer in monarch's hall
Last Line: The faith touching all things with hues of heaven!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Happiness; Hope; Sun; Women; Joy; Delight; Optimism


THOU art no lingerer in monarch's hall --
A joy thou art, and a wealth to all!
A bearer of hope unto land and sea --
Sunbeam! what gift hath the world like thee?

Thou art walking the billows, and ocean smiles;
Thou hast touched with glory his thousand isles;
Thou hast lit up the ships and the feathery foam,
And gladdened the sailor like words from home.

To the solemn depths of the forest-shades,
Thou art streaming on through their green arcades;
And the quivering leaves that have caught thy glow
Like fire-flies glance to the pools below.

I looked on the mountains -- a vapor lay
Folding their heights in its dark array:
Thou breakest forth, and the mist became
A crown and a mantle of living flame.

I looked on the peasant's lowly cot --
Something of sadness had wrapt the spot;
But a gleam of thee on its lattice fell,
And it laughed into beauty at that bright spell.

To the earth's wild places a guest thou art,
Flushing the waste like the rose's heart;
And thou scornest not from thy pomp to shed
A tender smile on the ruin's head.

Thou takest through the dim church-aisle thy way,
And its pillars from twilight flash forth to-day,
And its high, pale tombs, with their trophies old,
Are bathed in a flood as of molten gold.

And thou turnest not from the humblest grave,
Where a flower to the sighing winds may wave;
Thou scatterest its gloom like the dreams of rest,
Thou sleepest in love on its grassy breast.

Sunbeam of summer! oh, what is like thee?
Hope of the wilderness, joy of the sea! --
One thing is like thee to mortals given,
The faith touching all things with hues of heaven!





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