[Page 16]

SONG OF A SPIRIT.

1 In the sightless air I dwell,
2 On the sloping sun-beams play;
3 Delve the cavern's inmost cell,
4 Where never yet did day-light stray.
5 Dive beneath the green-sea waves,
6 And gambol in the briny deeps;
7 Skim every shore that Neptune laves,
8 From Lapland's plains to India's steeps.
9 Oft I mount with rapid force
10 Above the wide earth's shadowy zone;
11 Follow the day-star's flaming course
12 Through realms of space to thought unknown;
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13 And listen to celestial sounds,
14 That swell the air, unheard of men,
15 As I watch my nightly rounds
16 O'er woody steep, and silent glen.
17 Under the shade of waving trees.
18 On the green bank of fountain clear,
19 At pensive eve I sit at ease,
20 While dying music murmurs near.
21 And oft, on point of airy clift,
22 That hangs upon the western main,
23 I watch the gay tints passing swift,
24 And twilight veil the liquid plain.
25 Then, when the breeze has sunk away,
26 And ocean scarce is heard to lave,
27 For me the sea-nymphs softly play
28 Their dulcet shells beneath the wave.
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29 Their dulcet shells! I hear them now;
30 Slow swells the strain upon mine ear;
31 Now faintly falls — now warbles low,
32 'Till rapture melts into a tear.
33 The ray that silvers o'er the dew,
34 And trembles through the leafy shade,
35 And tints the scene with softer hue,
36 Calls me to rove the lonely glade;
37 Or hie me to some ruin'd tow'r,
38 Faintly shewn by moon-light gleam,
39 Where the lone wand'rer owns my pow'r
40 In shadows dire that substance seem;
41 In thrilling sounds that murmur woe,
42 And pausing silence makes more dread;
43 In music breathing from below
44 Sad, solemn Strains, that wake the dead.
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45 Unseen I move — unknown am fear'd!
46 Fancy's wildest dreams I weave;
47 And oft by bards my voice is heard
48 To die along the gales of eve.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): SONG OF A SPIRIT.
Author: Ann Radcliffe (née Ward)
Themes:
Genres: song

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Radcliffe, Ann Ward, 1764-1823. The Poems of Mrs. Ann Radcliffe. London: printed by and for J. Smith, Princes Street, 1816, pp. 16-19. 118p. [Radcliffe's poems only, pp. 1-95] (Page images digitized from a copy held at the National Library of the Netherlands.)

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