Poems (King)/The Aurora Borealis

For works with similar titles, see The Aurora Borealis.
The Aurora Borealis
WHENCE comes this rosy-red, mysterious light,
  That bathes the cloud-flecked canopy of blue?
  Anon 'tis pink, and then to crimson hue
It flushes with a radiance softly bright.
See! upward dart the fluted shafts of white,
  And now the tender star-buds, pale and few,
  In dewy depths, come trembling into view—
A blush is on the dusky face of night.

O God, thy glory on the sky is writ,
  Traced out in fire by ever-burning stars;
   As o'er that mighty text, in shimmering bars,
Auroral lights like raveled rainbows flit,
  Our souls to heaven upcaught and rapture-lit,
   Forget life's discord and its battle scars.