Rhode Island American And Providence Gazette

MISCELLANY.
From the Hampshire Gazette.
THE LIGHT THAT KNOWS NO SHADE.
’Tis sweet, when clouds are darkly sweeping
In sullen grandeur o’er the sky,
To see one star its night-watch keeping
Fair, bright, and lonely, far on high.
It almost seems, that in those rays
Some spirit lingers in its lightness,
And we can scarce forbear to gaze
Upon that form of spotless brightness;
And deem that all the rest have sped
Their radiant course in yonder heaven,
And this alone remains to shed
Its brightness o’er the shades of even.
And we would scarcely wish to change
That one lone orb, which brightens there,
For all the countless hosts, that range
The distant fields of azure air.
Yet shall it fade—and there shall be
A time, when all the stars, that gild
Your glorious firmament, shall see
Their course of light and joy fulfilled.
And none shall then remain to shine
Serene in the transparent air,
And there shall be not even a sign,
That they have ever brightened there.
But though, the stars of heaven shall fade
And perish ’mid their course sublime,
—There is a light, that knows no shade—
That scorns the ravages of time.
That holy light shall still remain
Unchanged through nature’s desolation,
It rose o’er Bethlehem’s sacred plain——
Its beams are mercy and salvation.