Classic Poem

Nature always to my sight
Was a passionate delight;
Even in my childhood, she
Was a wondrous mystery.
But I'd reach'd life's mountain-top,
Turn'd to take the downward slope,
Ere her secrets were reveal'd
And my inner eye unseal'd.
Then I first began to see,
E'en from flow'r and stone and tree,
Strange eyes looking out on me.
Next, with trembling joy and awe,
Mighty forms and shapes I saw —
Saw the Spirit of the Hills
Wand'ring by the mountain-rills;
Heard the Spirit of the Waves
Moaning in the sea-girt caves;
Heard the Maidens of the Deep
Rock the billows all to sleep,
With their songs, pure, undefiled,
As a mother rocks her child.
Still these anthems, moaning, roll
Through the caverns of my soul,
With the long-drawn heave and sweep
Of the great unfathom'd Deep.

Yes, Nature, for thy still retreats
How oft I left the busy streets!
And oh, how often from the jar
Of creeds I fled to thee afar! —
Starving for spiritual food
I sought the desert solitude:
When head and heart were all at strife,
I found therein the bread of life.
Thy temples all are unprofaned
By prejudice, nor passion-stain'd.
Yes, Nature, yes! thine is the road
That leads directly up to God.

Of those sweet Sabbaths of the heart
Should these, my lays, some taste impart
To parch'd souls, pent in cities vast,
To spirits weary and downcast,
I would rejoice, e'en with such joy
As when, a happy little boy,
On May-day morn, among the dew,
I welcom'd in the first cuckoo.