SELECT POETEY.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 759, 31 January 1865, Page 4

SELECT POETEY.

TO THE COMET OF 1811. The following lines were addressed by James Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd," the well-known Scottish pocfc, to the comet of 1811:— How lovely is this wildcrcd scene, As twilight from her vaults so blue Steals soft o'er Yarrow's mountains green, To sleep embalmed in midnight dew ! All hail, ye hills, whoso towering height, Like shadows, scoops the yielding sky ! And tliou, mysterious guest of night, Dread traveller of immensity! Stranger of heaven! I bid thee hail! Shred from the pall of glory riven, That flashest in celestial gale, Broad pennon of the King of Heaven! Art fchou the flag of woe and death, From angel's ensign-stafF unfurled ? Art thou the standard of his wrath Waved o'er a sordid sinful world ? No, from that pure pellucid beam, That erst o'er plains of Bethlehem shone,* No latent evil we can deem, Bright herald of the eternal throne! Whate'er portends thy front of fire, Thy streaming locks so lovely pale— Or peace to man, or judgments dire, Stranger of heaven, I bid thee hail! Where hast thou roamed these thousand years ? Why sought these polar paths again, From wilderness of glowing spheres, To fling thy vesture o'er the wain ? And when thou scalest the Milky-way, And vanishest from human view^ A thousand worlds shall hail thy ray Through wilds of yon empyreal blue! O ! on thy rapid prow to glide! To sail the boundless skies with thee, And plough the twinkling stars aside, Like foam-bells on a tranquil sea! To brash the embers from the sun, The icicles from off the pole ; Then far to other systems run, Where other moons and planets roll! Stranger of heaven ! O let thine eye Smile on a rapt enthusiast's dream ; Eccentric as thy course on high, And airy as thine ambient beam! And long, long may thy silver ray Oar northern arch at eve adorn j Then, wheeling to the east away, Light the gray portals of the morn ! * It was reckoned by many that this was the same comet which appeared at the birth of our Saviour. — Hogg.