On Leaping Over the Moon

I saw new worlds beneath the water lie,

New people; ye, another sky And sun, which seen by

Might things more clear display.

Just such

Of late my

Did in his travel see, and saw by nightA much more strange and wondrous sight;

Nor could the world exhibit such

So great a sight but in a brother.

Adventure strange!

No such in story

New or old, true or feigned, see.

On earth he seemed to move,

Yet heaven went above;

Up in the

His body

In open, visible, yet magic, sort;

As he along the way did sport,

Over the flood he takes his nimble

Without the help of feigned horse.

As he went tripping o'er the king's highway,

A little pearly river lay,

O'er which, he dared to swim,

Swim through the air On body fair;

He would not trust Icarian wings,

Lest they should prove deceitful things;

For had he fall'n, it had been wondrous high,

Not from, but from above, the sky.

He might have dropped through that thin

Into a fathomless descent;

Unto the nether

That did beneath him lie,

And there might

What wonders

On earth above.  Yet doth he briskly run,

And, bold, the danger overcome;

Who, as he leapt, with joy related

How happy he o'erleapt the moon.

What wondrous things upon the earth are

Beneath, and yet above, the sun!

Deeds all appear

In higher spheres;

In clouds as yet,

But there they

Another light, and in another

Themselves to us above display.

The skies themselves this earthly globe surround;

We're even here within them found.

On heav'nly ground within the skies we walk,

And in this middle center talk:

Did we but wisely move,

On earth in heav'n above,

Then soon should we Exalted

Above the sky; from whence whoever falls,

Through a long dismal

Sinks to the deep abyss where Satan crawls,

Where horrid death and despair lies.

As much as others thought themselves to

Beneath the moon, so much more

Himself he thought to fly Above the starry sky,

As that he

Below the tide.

Thus did he yield me in the shady nightA wondrous and instructive light,

Which taught me that under our feet there is,

As o'er our heads, a place of bliss.