To Hope.

Oh! take, young Seraph¹, take thy harp²,

And play to me so cheerily;

For grief is dark, and care is sharp,

And life wears on so wearily.

Oh! take thy harp!

Oh! sing as thou wert wont³ to do,

When, all youth’s sunny season long,

I sat and listened to thy song,

And yet ’twas ever, ever new,

With magic in its heaven-tuned string —

The future bliss⁴ thy constant theme.

Oh! then each little woe⁵ took wing

Away, like phantoms⁶ of a dream;

As if each sound

That flutter’d round,

Had floated over Lethe’s stream!

By all those bright and happy hours

We spent in life’s sweet eastern bow’rs,

Where thou wouldst sit and smile, and show,

Ere buds were come, where flowers would blow,

And oft anticipate the rise

Of life’s warm sun that scaled the skies;

By many a story of love and glory,

And friendships promised oft to me;

By all the faith I lent to thee —

Oh! take, young Seraph, take thy harp,

And play to me so cheerily;

For grief is dark, and care is sharp,

And life wears on so wearily.

Oh! take thy harp!

Perchance the strings⁷ will sound less clear,

That long have lain neglected by

In sorrow’s misty⁸ atmosphere;

It ne’er may speak as it hath spoken

Such joyous⁹ notes so brisk and high;

But are its golden chords all broken?

Are there not some, though weak and low,

To play a lullaby to woe?

But thou canst sing of love no more,

For Celia show’d that dream was vain;

And many a fancied bliss is o’er,

That comes not e’en in dreams again.

Alas¹⁰! alas!

How pleasures pass,

And leave thee now no subject, save

The peace and bliss beyond the grave!

Then be thy flight among the skies:

Take, then, oh! take the skylark’s wing,

And leave dull earth, and heavenward rise

O’er all its tearful clouds, and sing

On skylark’s wing!

Another life-spring there adorns¹¹

Another youth — without the dread¹²

Of cruel care, whose crown of thorns

Is here for manhood’s aching head.

Oh! there are realms of welcome day,

A world where tears are wiped away!

Then be thy flight among the skies:

Take, then, oh! take the skylark’s wing,

And leave dull earth, and heavenward rise

O’er all its tearful clouds, and sing

On skylark’s wing!

1 seraph   

n.六翼天使

参考例句：

• Seraph is of the highest rank of angels in the Bible.六翼天使是圣经中级别最高的天使。
• In the Bible,a seraph is a kind of angel.在圣经中，六翼天使是天使的一种。

2 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

3 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。

4 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。

5 woe   

n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌

参考例句：

• Our two peoples are brothers sharing weal and woe.我们两国人民是患难与共的兄弟。
• A man is well or woe as he thinks himself so.自认祸是祸，自认福是福。

6 phantoms   

n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They vanished down the stairs like two phantoms. 他们像两个幽灵似的消失在了楼下。 来自辞典例句
• The horrible night that he had passed had left phantoms behind it. 他刚才度过的恐布之夜留下了种种错觉。 来自辞典例句

7 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

8 misty   

adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的

参考例句：

• He crossed over to the window to see if it was still misty.他走到窗户那儿，看看是不是还有雾霭。
• The misty scene had a dreamy quality about it.雾景给人以梦幻般的感觉。

9 joyous   

adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的

参考例句：

• The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
• They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。

10 alas   

int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)

参考例句：

• Alas!The window is broken!哎呀！窗子破了！
• Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而，真理很少带有浪漫色彩。

11 adorns   

装饰，佩带( adorn的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Have adornment, the building adorns the product of material. 有装饰，就有建筑装饰材料的制品。
• In this case, WALL-E adorns every pillar. 在这段时间，Wall-E占据了各个显要位置。

12 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。