Mundi et Cordis :: :: University of Virginia Library

Atom of the sustaining element
Which of the old earth is the sap and blood,
That dwell'st apart
From that vast heart
Of which thou art one life-drop, to the mood
Of thought thy narrow sphere lends spacious argument!

2.

This is thy voice:—“I am the globed dew
Which trickles from the locks of twilight grey,
When the earth falls asleep, and when anew
She wakens, blushing with a dream of day,
And the love-stricken star of the pale morning
Swoons in Aurora's eyelids; till the grass,
Foliage and flowers are pearl'd with my adorning,
And not a leaf but drinks me as I pass.

3.

“I am the tears that gush from human eyes,
Even figured as themselves and glassy-sphered—
A sweeter dew let fall from clearer skies;
And on the flower o' the cheek I hang endear'd:
I am the eyes, with air and fire enwove,
In triple glory; and I am the light
Which moistly lies upon the lips of love,
When love to liquid kisses they invite.

4.

“I am the rain which clouded heaven weepeth;
In the rebounding hail I dance congeal'd;
In the still snow which, mute as shadows, sweepeth
Over the earth, I am by warmth revealed;
And in the hoar frost is my gem secreted—
Soft-frozen dew; and from the icicle
I come at the sun's call—on bare bough greeted,
Or far amid the rocks in cavern'd cell.

5.

“I form the clouds and mists: the setting sun
Doth glorify me in the golden west,
The moon in silver cloud and halo dun,
And planets in their circlets of dim mist.

Without me were not the electric fire,
Thunder, wind, meteor, nor bright exhalation;
And through me the ethereal beams transpire
Which weave the rainbow's sevenfold coruscation.

6.

“I form the secret springs that feed the earth—
The gushing brook, swift rill and leaping fountain,
River and lake and waterfall; and mirth
Bounds with my music adown many a mountain;
And when the Winter with his cold hand chains
The fluent freedom which in me abided,
Ye may behold me fix'd in crystal plains—
And o'er me glide, swiftly as I have glided.

7.

“I am the seed whence grew the unfathom'd ocean,
Boundless, and crested with a foaming glory!
I form the billows whose eternal motion
Shakes the strong rock and fells the mountain hoary:
Without me the wide earth were desolate,
Its sweets corruption and its verdure sere;
And splendour waits upon my flowing state,
Or in the curving wave, or orbed tear!”

8.

Atom of the earth-filling element!
I cast thee now into thy kindred sea:
Lo! thou art mingled—
As spirit singled
From Nature's soul, awhile in us to be,
Is given to the Great Vast, and with its Depths reblent.