 | Lyrical Poems |  |
186
NATURE AND MAN
The trees in their greenest;
The summer-still'd voice of the stream,
In the pause of the nightingale
Heard as far off in a dream;
Deep meadows, where Iris
Her scarf has flung down in her mirth,
While Heaven, one sapphire,
With a blue smile closes on earth:—
The summer-still'd voice of the stream,
In the pause of the nightingale
Heard as far off in a dream;
Deep meadows, where Iris
Her scarf has flung down in her mirth,
While Heaven, one sapphire,
With a blue smile closes on earth:—
Here in Nature's aloneness,
What need, Shepherd, of thee?
Why this blot, this intrusion
Of poor humanity?
With the forces around thee
Thou would'st hold contention in vain;
With the music of Nature
Idly thou matchest thy strain.
What need, Shepherd, of thee?
Why this blot, this intrusion
Of poor humanity?
With the forces around thee
Thou would'st hold contention in vain;
With the music of Nature
Idly thou matchest thy strain.
187
—Ah no, 'tis another
Lesson the landscape must give:
'Tis but in the mirror
Of mind these pageantries live:
When the eye that beholds them
Is closed, the radiance dies;
From the trees the greenery,
The sapphire goes from the skies:—
Lesson the landscape must give:
'Tis but in the mirror
Of mind these pageantries live:
When the eye that beholds them
Is closed, the radiance dies;
From the trees the greenery,
The sapphire goes from the skies:—
To his ear the streamlet
To his ear only may sing;
O'er his hand the crystal
Run cool, as he dips it therein:—
O Nature, we know thee
Alone as thou art to the soul:
While we know that we only
Are as atoms that float in the Whole.
To his ear only may sing;
O'er his hand the crystal
Run cool, as he dips it therein:—
O Nature, we know thee
Alone as thou art to the soul:
While we know that we only
Are as atoms that float in the Whole.
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