Noche serena

When to the heavenly dome my thoughts take flight,
With shimmering stars bedecked, ablaze with light,
Then sink my eyes down to the ground,
In slumber wrapped, oblivion bound,
Enveloped in the gloom of darkest night ;
With love and pain assailed, with anxious care,
A thousand troubles in my breast appear,
My eyes turn to a flowing rill,
Sore sorrow's tearful floods distill,
While saddened, mournful words my woes declare.
Oh, dwelling fit for angels ! sacred fane !
The hallowed shrine where youth and beauty reignj?

Why in this dungeon, plunged in night,
The soul that's born for Heaven's delight
Should cruel Fate withhold from its domain?
What madness ever swayed the human brain
From Truth and Purity to speed amain,
With mind forgetful of the hand
Divine, to roam in error grand,
Along a path beset by phantoms vain?

Bound in fell chains, a captive in his bloom
To futile dreams, forgetful of his doom,
The heavens with rapid, noiseless tread
Speed in their courses overhead,
As life runs racing fleet to Death's dread gloom.
Arouse, I say ! ye mortals ope* your eyes,
Behold with steadfast gaze your fearful losst
Can the immortal soul, create
For deeds of Honor's high Estate,
On shadows banquet and deceptions prize?
Awake ! and raise on high your fixed regard
To where eternal fires the welkin guard !
Tear down the bars that dim your view,
Despise Earth's joys of flattering hue,
In hope and fear strive for just Heaven's reward.
What is it but a small, quick-rolling dot
This base, ignoble earth, when once we see
The spheres celestial wherein Fate
Hath mirrored forth a future state
Of all that was, or is, or e'er shall be?
Behold the skies, the harmonies that sway
Those flaming orbs with clear, eternal ray,
Whose movements true are led by law,
Whose pace unerring hath no flaw,
Whose steps ordained in due proportion stray.

The cresset of the eve, the moon's mild gleams,
Whirls like a silvery shield, while from her streams
The glory whence deep learning flows,
Beside her track bright Venus glows,
In sparkling radiance, soft, pellucid beams.
Another path is traversed by red Mars,
The god of anger, deadly strife and wars;
And far-off Jupiter benign,
From whom ten thousand blessings shine,
With torch of love sheds peace among the stars.
Most distant of them all, and in their maze,
Rolls Saturn, father of the golden days;
Around him blaze a happy band,
A dazzling chorus on each hand,
Who share his treasure and divide his rays.
Lives there a man, who, when he views this sight,
Doth not despise this petty, earthly, plight?
Who doth not sigh in grievous pain,
And strive to rend the fleshly chain
That fetters him, an exile from pure light ?
In those far realms of Hope content is found,
In gentle peace, tranquillities profound;
Enshrined on rich and lofty throne
Reigns kindly Love's own sacred zone,
Where purities and holiness abound.

io POEMS FROM THE SPANISH

And all that wondrous beauty without end,
Unblemished shines with incandescent light,
With ray unsullied, softly bright,
Upon whose day there falls no night,
Where Spring's eternal myriad odors blend.
Ye fields of Truth ! ye tender sweetest bliss !
Ye meadows fresh, with guileless love well-stored !
Ye mines of richest ore !
Ye hearts of joy's full store !
Ye vales replete with Pleasure's purest hoard !

[This poem is considered De Leon's masterpiece, but the ending shows a sad falling off from the beauty of the beginning.]