 | Song and Story |  |
129
NATURE IN BONDAGE.
I sometimes muse, in mournful way,
Since tyranny should make us mourn,
Of how the city's cruel sway
Chokes nature down with stony scorn;
Since tyranny should make us mourn,
Of how the city's cruel sway
Chokes nature down with stony scorn;
Of how, where traffic's noises rave,
Where dull roofs crowd and gray streets run,
The great primeval woods once gave
Their leafy laughters to the sun;
Where dull roofs crowd and gray streets run,
The great primeval woods once gave
Their leafy laughters to the sun;
Of how, in purlieus wrought for ease
And all that luxury enshrines,
Perchance a briery dell heard bees
Boom dreamy round its eglantines;
And all that luxury enshrines,
Perchance a briery dell heard bees
Boom dreamy round its eglantines;
Of how in slothful haunts of wrong,
Where vice and squalor darkly merge,
Perchance a crystal brook's pure song
Has thrilled the violet on its verge.
Where vice and squalor darkly merge,
Perchance a crystal brook's pure song
Has thrilled the violet on its verge.
130
And yet, intolerant of thrall
Whose rigid rule she may not quell,
I mark, at many an interval,
How fettered Nature would rebel.
Whose rigid rule she may not quell,
I mark, at many an interval,
How fettered Nature would rebel.
For clear in squares of courtyard space,
Or breaks of foliage rarely seen,
Or grass-rimmed pavements, I can trace
Her timorous episodes of green.
Or breaks of foliage rarely seen,
Or grass-rimmed pavements, I can trace
Her timorous episodes of green.
But where some fragrant park sweeps wide,
Her woful slavery gleams more plain,
As though its captive yearning cried,
With lovelier eloquence of pain. ...
Her woful slavery gleams more plain,
As though its captive yearning cried,
With lovelier eloquence of pain. ...
Ah, Nature, find your comfort here,
That still, for all man's power may do,
Your great heaven arches, year by year,
Its chaste unvanquishable blue.
That still, for all man's power may do,
Your great heaven arches, year by year,
Its chaste unvanquishable blue.
And still, though art with garish light
Your duskier mood dismays and mars,
Pale o'er the city, night by night,
Beam your undominated stars!
Your duskier mood dismays and mars,
Pale o'er the city, night by night,
Beam your undominated stars!
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