Love of Night

I love to rove amidst the starry height,
To leave the little scenes of Earth behind,
And let Imagination wing her flight
On eagle pinions swifter than the wind.
I love the planets in their course to trace ;
To mark the comets speeding to the Sun,
Then launch into immeasurable space,
Where, lost to human sight, remote they run.
I love to view the Moon, when high she rides
Amidst the heav'ns, in borrowed lustre bright,
To fathom how she rules the subject tides,
And how she borrows from the Sun her light.
O! these are the wonders of th' Almighty hand,
Whose wisdom first the circling orbits planned.

T. Rodd