 | Idyls of Norway and other poems |  |
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[IV. I stood and gazed with wonder blent with awe]
I stood and gazed with wonder blent with aweUpon the giant foot-prints Nature left
Of her primeval march in yonder cleft:
A fern-leaf's airy woof, a reptile's claw,
In their eternal slumber there I saw
In deftly-wrought sarcophagi of stone.
What humid tempests, from rank forests blown,
Whirled from its parent stem yon slender straw?
What scaly creature of a monstrous breed
Bore yonder web-foot through the tepid tide?
Oh, what wide vistas thronged with mighty deed
And mightier thought have here mine eyes decried!
Come, a fraternal grasp, thou hand of stone!
The flesh that once was thine is now mine own.
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