How deeply, then, his breast

Is fill'd with pangs of longing! how his eyes

Drink in the enchanted prospect! Fair it lies

Before him, with its plains expanding vast,

Peopled with visions, and enrich'd with dreams;

Dim cities, ancient forests, winding streams,

Places resounding in the famous past,

A kingdom ready to his hand!

How like a bride Life seems to stand

In welcome, and with festal robes array'd!

He feels her loveliness pervade

And pierce him with inexplicable sweetness;

[6]

And, in her smiles delighting, and the fires

Of his own pulses, passionate soul!

Measures his strength by his desires,

And the wide future by their fleetness,

As his thought leaps to the long-distant goal.

So eagerly across that unknown span

Of years he gazes: what, to him,

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