That orbèd continent the fire
That severs day from night.
_Twelfth Night, Act_ v. _Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.
O thou that, with surpassing glory crowned,
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God
Of this new world,...
O Sun!
_Paradise Lost, Bk. IV_. MILTON.
Fires the proud tops of the eastern pines.
_King Richard II., Act_ iii. _Sc_. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
The lessening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,
Illumed with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad. Lo! now, apparent all
Aslant the dew-bright earth, and colored air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad;
And sheds the shining day, that burnished plays
On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wand'ring streams
High gleaming from afar.
_The Seasons: Summer_. J. THOMSON.
The sun had long since in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his nap.
And, like a lobster boiled, the morn
From black to red began to turn.
_Hudibras, Pt. II. Canto II_. DR. S. BUTLER.
"But," quoth his neighbor, "when the sun
From East to West his course has run,
How comes it that he shows his face
Next morning in his former place?"
"Ho! there's a pretty question, truly!"
Replied our wight, with an unruly
Burst of laughter and delight,
So much his triumph seemed to please him:
"Why, blockhead! he goes back at night,
And that's the reason no one sees him!"
_The Astronomical Alderman_. H. SMITH.
Behold him setting in his western skies,
The shadows lengthening as the vapors rise.
_Absalom and Achitophel, Pt. I_ J.J. DRYDEN.
Now sunk the sun: the closing hour of day
Came onward, mantled o'er with sober gray;
Nature in silence bid the world repose.
_The Hermit_. T. PARNELL.
Parting day
Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues
With a new color as it gasps away,
The last still loveliest, till--'t is gone--and all is gray.
_Childe Harold, Canto IV_. LORD BYRON.
Come watch with me the shaft of fire that glows
In yonder West: the fair, frail palaces,
The fading Alps and archipelagoes,
And great cloud-continents of sunset-seas.
_Miracles_. T.B. ALDRICH.
The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last.
_King Richard II., Act_ ii. _Sc_. 1. SHAKESPEARE.