The Aurora Borealis or northern light
With its scintillations so strangely bright,
Shifting and dancing along the sky-
A picture of beauty to please the eye.

How sweetly the dazzling meteors blend!
How quickly the flashes of light descend!
You'd think the young angels had gathered in crowds
To play hide-and-seek through the golden clouds,

Let sage philosophers search out the cause,
And tell me the Science of Nature's laws;
And how these refractory rays of light
Enrich the north of a frosty night.

And tho' electricians may tell me why
These scintillant lights so illume the sky
They never can add to the rapt delight,
Which first attracted my wondering sight.

How well I remember one night of old,
When the sky was tinted with silver and gold;
But all of the rainbow colours were there
Disporting their hues in the upper air.

The people rushed out, and with strange amaze,
And with awe-stricken thoughts continued to gaze,
Till fear and fancy such pictures wrought,
That many beheld a great battle fought.

Great phantom armies in deadly fight,
With their flashing swords and their helmets bright;
How they charged and swayed, and shifted and fled,
Till the sky grew red with the vanquished dead.

And many declared 'twas a sign from heaven-
A timely warning to mortals given,
That the flood-gates of wrath were thrown ajar,
To deluge the world with an awful war.

The arc that bridges the cold north pole
Has got no terrors to seize the soul;
But the flashing streamers and shifting lights
Are still to the timid the cause of frights.

And many, with superstitious dread,
Are awed when streamers the sky o'erspread;
While others rejoice at the picture given-
A reflex of light from its source in heaven.

But let the omen be what it may,
I love to gaze on the bright display
Of the ever-varying, changing hues,
Portrayed in these grand dissolving views.