Sonnet. to a Balloon Laden With Knowledge

Bright ball of flame that through the gloom of even

Silently takest thine aethereal way,

And with surpassing glory dimm'st each ray

Twinkling amid the dark blue depths of Heaven, —

Unlike the fire thou bearest, soon shalt thou

Fade like a meteor in surrounding gloom,

Whilst that, unquenchable, is doomed to glow

A watch-light by the patriot's lonely tomb;

A ray of courage to the oppressed and poor;

A spark, though gleaming on the hovel's hearth,

Which through the tyrant's gilded domes shall roar;

A beacon in the darkness of the Earth;

A sun which, o'er the renovated scene,

Shall dart like Truth where Falsehood yet has been.