Forest Notes :: :: University of Virginia Library

My soul has mingled with the Forest's soul;
Danced with its lights and shadows; laughed its laugh;
Caught every lightest whisper as it stole;
Drunk in each wood-bell what its fairies quaff;
Thrilled with its every rustle overhead;
Thrilled with its every rustle underfoot;
Breathed breath of bracken; heard what each tree said
To sun and wind and dew, and what each root
Said to the Earth, the dark eternal Mother;
What squirrel, mouse and hedgehog told each other

Of never-ending Summer; what the mole
Whispered to tree-root gnomes, deep in his hole;
Yea, heard the tale the robin and the wren,
The thrush, the blackbird, told his tiny hen:
Oh! I have listened to the warning wail
Of groping winds, precursors of the gale,
Between the shuddering oak-trees that well know
The battle-song of Tempest, and the roll
Of forest thunder, distant still and low:
My soul has mingled with the Forest's soul.