2.

If solitude hath ever led thy steps
To the wild Ocean’s echoing shore,
And thou hast lingered there,
Until the sun’s broad orb
Seemed resting on the burnished wave, 5
Thou must have marked the lines
Of purple gold, that motionless
Hung o’er the sinking sphere: 
Thou must have marked the billowy clouds
Edged with intolerable radiancy 10
Towering like rocks of jet
Crowned with a diamond wreath. 
And yet there is a moment,
When the sun’s highest point
Peeps like a star o’er Ocean’s western edge, 15
When those far clouds of feathery gold,
Shaded with deepest purple, gleam
Like islands on a dark blue sea;
Then has thy fancy soared above the earth,
And furled its wearied wing 20
Within the Fairy’s fane.

Yet not the golden islands
Gleaming in yon flood of light,
Nor the feathery curtains
Stretching o’er the sun’s bright couch, 25
Nor the burnished Ocean waves
Paving that gorgeous dome,
So fair, so wonderful a sight
As Mab’s aethereal palace could afford. 
Yet likest evening’s vault, that faery Hall! 30
As Heaven, low resting on the wave,it spread
Its floors of flashing light,
Its vast and azure dome,
Its fertile golden islands
Floating on a silver sea; 35
Whilst suns their mingling beamings darted
Through clouds of circumambient darkness,
And pearly battlements around
Looked o’er the immense of Heaven.

The magic car no longer moved. 40
The Fairy and the Spirit
Entered the Hall of Spells: 
Those golden clouds
That rolled in glittering billows
Beneath the azure canopy 45
With the aethereal footsteps trembled not: 
The light and crimson mists,
Floating to strains of thrilling melody
Through that unearthly dwelling,
Yielded to every movement of the will. 50
Upon their passive swell the Spirit leaned,
And, for the varied bliss that pressed around,
Used not the glorious privilege
Of virtue and of wisdom.

‘Spirit!’ the Fairy said, 55
And pointed to the gorgeous dome,
’This is a wondrous sight
And mocks all human grandeur;
But, were it virtue’s only meed, to dwell
In a celestial palace, all resigned 60
To pleasurable impulses, immured
Within the prison of itself, the will
Of changeless Nature would be unfulfilled. 
Learn to make others happy.  Spirit, come! 
This is thine high reward:—­the past shall rise; 65
Thou shalt behold the present; I will teach
The secrets of the future.’