Classic Poem

[FRAGMENT 3]

" Poor things! we know not what they suffer; "
Mused the old man: — " I meant not wrong:
" Poor child! I had forgiven her long:
" We are less tempted and much tougher.
" Yes, yes! Your words seem true, but you —
" Could you remember, as I do,
" The little girl I used to kiss
" At night — and it has come to this! "

He falter'd: idle aspens shake
Unheeded: but when sorrows wake
The oak to sighs, there is no leaf
But shudders with foreboding grief.

" May she in her household labours
" Be at peace from babbling neighbours!
" May she be happy with me here! "
He added with returning cheer.

Quoth Willie — " Your forgiveness sums
" All medicine for her consolation:
" For with it self-forgiveness comes,
" And the calm Heaven of meditation.
" The village gossips — let them prate
" And give their raging virtue rein:
" The world is generous in the main,
" But not until well school'd by Fate,
" And she — once let her mind review
" The passage of her whole life thro';
" Survey it from its morning pure,
" Up to the blush she must endure;
" Observe where Love first dazzled in,
" And virtue took the woof of sin;
" Catch the bright gleam to Christians dear,
" And hear Christ's words in Mary's ear; —
" All will be well! — The sailor lad
" Shipwreckt upon his native Isle,
" When in the dawn his heart is sad
" To look far inland many a mile,
" And think of his brave Comrades gone
" Never to see another dawn;
" Himself alone in that strange lull: —
" To look upon the shatter'd hull
" Bright on the breakers, and the prow
" Drown'd in the deep — is like her now.
" Flutter the gaze of both away
" To where the full sail swept the bay,
" And going with the prosperous gale,
" The sea-line circled round the sail.
" Picture it how it danced & drew
" So gently — till the tempest grew,
" And image that mad glimpse of home
" In darkness and in fiery foam: —
" Then when the past with life unites,
" The strangeness of familiar sights
" Will speak to them with loving stress,
" Vision'd in natural holiness.
" Nature's reviving life will show
" How precious that with which they glow,
" And then — all mortal dangers braved —
" Their one great thought be — I am saved!
" Saved she is! if, still unsteady,
" In the new path she drags her chain,
" Trust in the strength of Time — already
" The blue sky breaks behind the rain. "

Jerking aside the farmer shook
As with strange tingling in his feet;
Spake as in haste: — " I see't, I see't!
" Your words are like some rhyming book:
" Just such a one as Nancy read
" When she could scarcely lift her head;
" I listening; nor its meaning crost
" Till she was lost — till she was lost!
" To understand them, it seems needful
" Great sorrow first should make us heedful.
" It would have been mere sing-song stuff,
" Dull as the chatter of a chough.
Once — "
— " Why, see you not the vein
You've struck, " cried Willie, eyelids wide,
Neck forward, as in some dark mine
His fancy trackt a glittering line:
" — You find that grief has been your gain,
" A point beyond all mortal pride:
" You find that where misfortunes hit
" Is deeper heart and truer wit:
" You find that every human sting
" Is given 'neath a honey'd wing:
" You find that every woundy blow
" Makes paths through which great feelings go.
" For even if sorrow be a curse,
" It weds us with the universe;
" And they who bear it trebly bind
" Their beings up with humankind. "

And doubt not that he did, thus quicken'd:
However in past time he sicken'd;
And to another shoulder shifted
The load he should have lithely lifted.
For not unlike a dark magician
Was Willie to his inner vision;
Calling up Spirits from the deep
That else had held a life-long sleep.
Spirits that in the densest clod
Abide, tho' sturdily they lurk:
For all men are forecast of God,
And all are God's good handiwork.

His large gray eyes with kindness shone,
And matcht his ruddy cheeks, and matcht
The clustering ripeness round him, snatcht
A juicy light of Autumn's own,
A bounteous sparkle while he spake,
Giving our Willie's fist a shake,
" I do; and I shall not forget
" How much I owe you! — that's a debt
" It makes a man feel rich to pay! "

And underneath an orchard spray
That with its burden like a willow
Droopt to the dew, they saunter'd, skipping
Grave matters by degrees, and slipping
Into the genial season. Grandly
Rose the day o'er them; spreading mellow
Threatening heat: and golden-yellow
Mounted the husbanding sun, and blandly
Blew the sweet South-wind from its bed:
Rippled in Southern Heaven, and paved
Smooth on the sunning blue aloft,
Clouds of the South lay warm and soft.
Over the land the South-wind waved
The gorgeous Autumn banners; red,

Amber, and purple. Like a flame
Stood the great haystack: glass-like flow'd
The river: humming noises came
From neighbouring field, and lane, and road.
Hot insects rose & sank: late swallows
Purple-backt, swift-wing'd, white-breasted,
Skimmed, & soar'd, and never rested:
A golden haze hung round the hollows.
Perching and pecking in the shade,
The blackbird piped: to clench his prize
The spider crawl'd, as headlong flies
Paid homage to his ambuscade.

They heard, and markt; and from chance phrase
To silence fell: each on his mind
And memory gradually declined;
Woo'd by the wistful Autumn rays.
And of the doe, from lapse to lapse,
Mused Willie, and how human-dear,
How humanized by love, how near
Our life she was; and what mishaps
Might chance to her; and the farmer's saying
That in the world to come, he pray'd
To meet her. Likewise the old man sway'd
Thoughtfully to & fro, and swaying,
On Willie's fortunes toucht; his mate
So true, & his improvident state:
Thence to his own poor child, and thence,
By no self-scarr'd benevolence,
To Willie's children.
Sudden — and momently hurrying nigher —
Rose a piteous exclamation: —
Each started, as at cry of fire
To one who dreams of conflagration.
Seeking confirming looks askance
From either's questioning countenance.

Then Willie — " Tis for the doe! " " Nay run! "
The farmer cried: " here comes your son;
" He is alone: they have been straying
" On the deep river-banks, and playing:
" I hear him shouting out for help!
" And listen now! — no, no! you're right,
" He thinks my Nancy's in some plight. "
And listening they caught the querulous yelp
And ravenous-joyful bark of dogs
Closing upon the quarry: —
" — O, Sir!
" I saw her stumble on some logs:
" She's lost! there's no one to deter
" Her enemies from killing her! Sir!
" Hasten with me! O, do you not hear? — "

Twas little Willie, breathless, eager;
Anguish in all his face & figure.

" Ay, ay! my boy! " the farmer laught.
" We'll see who gains her first; quick, quick! "
" And while the boy flew like a shaft,
" He whisper'd smiling: — " Tis her trick,
" The cunning thing! and I can't cure her:
" When she is fresh, and they are flagging,
" Sometimes limping, sometimes lagging,
" But getting eye and footing surer,
" Marking well their distance from her,
" Instantly down she'll drop, and stretch
" Her flanks, loll out her tongue, and watch
" With her sharp ears the nearest comer.
" But have no fear! she'll take no hurt!
" She'll keep a space between them still:
" She knows the ground; what woods to skirt:
" The windward of the windy hill.
" I've seen her while the pack all torn
" Tugg'd hard thro' the tough brakes of thorn,
" Quietly couch till her scent they drew
" Fresh down the pasture — when off she flew.
" Lord, such a sight! and look, look, look!
" I see her! she leads the pack in line,
" And now, she bounds across the brook,
" Now, doubles round the lonely pine:
" Winds by the hazel copse, & wends
" Riverward like a flinging colt,
" As if preparing the final bolt
" That brings her safe among her friends.
" See you? — but no! she takes the height,
" She turns — and so she'll sweep in sight,
" Vain winsome creature! giving them slip
" Just where those oaks the pasture clip.
" See you? and what a way she has
" Of lilting along the long lush grass;
" Why, she's as fresh as fire! fore Heaven!
" What a fine run the girl has given! "

Loudly he chuckled; sweeping proudly
His arm across the chase, as were't
A princedom of his own; and loudly
To see their favorite free from hurt,
The children laught, and jumpt, and call'd her
Pretty pet names; and Willie sent
A rapturous look, as on she went
Beside the river's fringing alder,
Up the dark stubble, down the mead,
With undeteriorated speed.

Dashing along with forward chest
And queenly head, and neck of pride,
And noble pleasure manifest
In every limb, she circled wide
Before them, and her shape, descried
A moment on the bounding knolls,
And in between the sloping boles,
Was taken by the gazing tide
In tremulous ripples: tremulously
The fever-flushing foliage threw
Quivering lights as on she flew
In glancing swiftness fairily,
From field to field, and fallow slant,
And over brook, and over brake,
The steaming hounds still in her wake,
Straining their lengths, and long & gaunt,
As up the Heavens the Morning glow'd,
Their shadows racing by them, strode.

Fairily into view & fairily
Out of sight she flew; and airily
Up the high banks she bounded, clearing
Leaps that the huntsmen love, and leering
Round on her foes, as though to taunt
Their tardiness with triumphant vaunt.
And — " look, and look " the farmer urged
Whenever from covert her shape emerged:
" She leads them o'er hurdle, & hedge, & stile,
" With playful manner so like a smile. "

Fairily into view, & fairily
Out of sight she flew; and charily
Husbanding strength, and re-appearing,
She brought the dull tramp of the chase in hearing;
Mingled with many a shrill halloo
The ambushing echoes fail'd not to renew.

And — " Sing to her hooves, green hills, that gloom
" With the old Romance that you entomb!
" Sing to her hooves, " cried Willie, " she flies
" With a golden wake from the wistful skies. "

Fairily into view, and fairily
Out of sight she flew; & warily
Clipping the pasture, & quickly nearing,
Haunches tightening, head up-rearing,
Full on them all with her foes compact,
She pour'd like a reinless cataract.

And — " home, she's home! " together all
United in one exulting call;
As to their vision dizzily
The reeling landscape roll'd on the lea.

Home, with her knees beneath her bent,
And panting safely in the ring
Of lowing horns, she lay nigh spent.
Beautiful, and so confident,
Her sleek sides softly shimmering,
That of the baffled pack no reck
She show'd, but turn'd her shining neck
To meet her master's eyes, & flapt
Her flutter'd ears as Marian clapt
Joyfully both small hands to praise her.

" But what is this upon her flanks? " —
The farmer mutter'd, as thro' the ranks
Of herded cows they enter'd: — " Raise her! "
Willie replied — " She's hurt. " — " Nay, nay!
" She is not, can't be hurt, I say!
" She knows the ground, she loves the sport; "
Came the half passionate retort.
But in his voice there was a tone
That Willie knew was not his own:
And when he spake, after a space,
A shadow crost his open face.

— " She is not hurt, I would she were!
" Rather than what my fears infer.
" I would she were, I would she were!
" You see above that sp[l]ash of mud,
" Those three wet streaming spirts of blood?
" That blood, man! does not come from her,
" It comes from yonder whining cur.
" I would she were! I would she were! "
Then gathering force to speak his meaning,
His elbow upon Nancy leaning:
" — Yes! tho' for life she had been lamed,
" I'd rather it so than have her blamed
" By him to whom those dogs belong,
" For this mischance. And he is one
" Who never can forget a wrong:
" The cud of something I have done
" To anger him, even now he chews
" And finds it very sweet, I fancy.
" Sure am I all his art he'll use
" To work some evil thing on Nancy.
" Ah! lift your eyes, my girl! You're safe
" While I am near, so let him chafe.
" But only yesterday he swore
" That I should pay him some old score
" And with me soon, he'd reckon, too,
" With interest doubled since 'twas due;
" His keepers tell me. Well, for that,
" My friend, I care not my old hat.
" He dreads me quite as much; and yet
" I cannot sleep upon his threat
" To shoot her or to have her shot
" Whenever on his grounds she's caught.
" His keepers are staunch men & true;
" A deed so base they'd never do.
" But he has moods — Ho! Mulberry, hither!
" She is the queen-cow & together
" Nancy & she are always seen:
" She fought with Clover to be queen.
" Hither, my lady! see, how sleek
" She steps! & what an eye! that streak
" Of crimson 'twixt her horns tells truly
" Who gored the hound that was unruly:
" Hey, my Beauty? — "
So fond
She footed: So sweet she breathed:
Richly on her glow-purple wreathed
The splendour of the sun:
— " Beyond,
" If friendship could bare cast the chances,
" I think, though, you'd have spared his dances,
" As many a time you've done before: —
" Or meant the rascal mischief, sure? "

And with a loving hand he chid her,
Threatening that to the highest bidder
He would sell both; perversely showing
The fulness of content o'erflowing.
Calling her names that Willie feign'd
To take as earnest; interceding,
And with a full-mouthed fervour pleading
That his true feelings well sustain'd.
" — What eye could more than view the risk?
" What love could less than ward it brisk? — "
Till to man's level he did lift
The creature with one god-like gift:
" — Pure instinct charged with love's sole sense
" Is such divine intelligence! "

A signal from the orchard broke
This rhapsody: " Yo ho! " replied
The farmer, and with a parting stroke
To Mulberry, their speed they tried,
And up to Joan their laughing goal,
Came with bright cheeks that burned like coal.
Each with an unsuspicious thought,
Anxious by frolic to efface
The undevelopt dread that wrought
Remembrance of that gory trace.

" — A letter for the winner! — guess! "

" — For Farmer Gale! the seal three bees. "

" — Right stamp, right claimant, right address! "

" — Tis from my son across the seas! "

" — O Willie, Willie! fie, Sir Snail!
" For breakfast race, or cease to boast. "

" — Let mortals run! I praise the Mail,
" And ape the all-outstripping Post! "

And in its honour, trolling forth
In tripping dactyls, doggerel rhymes;
Much earnestness he fledged with mirth,
This dwarf upon the giant times!
Puffing the virtues of a penny
High as the lustrous gold tracks[?] under us;
" — For with it Love has made the Many
" Serve each & him with magic wondrous! "

" — Right! " chimed the farmer, and I'd rather
" This than what follows in these days:
" He's not unmindful of his father,
" And sends me " just a sample" he says. "

" — Gold! " shouted Willie, making skips,
A miser's lines about his lips.

— " Ay! pure as if Victoria's head
" Were on't now! but, hey? — methinks
" The time has somewhat swiftly sped,
" As the day mounts, my stomach sinks! "

" — Great privilege of appetite
" To balance with the God of Light!
" And mine! — Less swiftly blazing wheel!
" Let not our systems variance feel! "

Fresh as the dawn, the morning meal
Awaited them; home loaves, & warm
Sweet milk that cream-like poured — pure food
The contributions of the farm.
White welcome to their hungry mood
And pasturing eyes, the snowy cloth
Presented with its shining knives
And burnisht plate, & all things good
That keep the spirit from the moth
By watching that its prison thrives.

Albeit, mused Willie, latter-school
Philosophers that creed reverse: —
Let empty pockets prove their rule,
There's Wisdom in the well-stockt purse!
Body & soul, mayhap, are knit
As slackly as that sort of wit
In them; but not in me; in me
They joy together; and grieve together,
And are as they should be, one in all weather,
And hail! cry they, to the sight we see.

Whereat he turn'd an eye, as might
Great Hannibal when from the white
Prophetic Alp his hungry gaze
Exulting in its gaunt amaze,
Conquer'd Italia! — pastoral gleams
Were rippling on her peaceful streams.

And here was honey from the hives,
Of melting amber, such as made
The children near it take their station,
And on it with strange fascination,
Glisten: and here was Ale that drives
Disaster to oblivious shade;
Sending a sun up in the brain,
To blind remembrance, banish pain;
A prime home-brew, but not the primest,
Well, farmer, that reserve thou timest!
And here was England's giant joint
Still glowing from the midnight feast:
To which all English ages point
For veneration — not decreased
Tho' Fame upon such splendid fare,
Has waxed too portly to invoke:
Ever proclaim its worth, or wear
Disgraced, an ignominious yoke,
O Englishmen! And here were eggs,
Announced at sunrise in a tone
That took the cock nigh off his legs:
For them the hens will warm a stone.
Compassion get they none, I ween:
What egg knows what it would have been;
Or dreams of feathers in that shell
We tap with such deliberate knell.
And here was China's precious plant
Ascending in a fragrant cloud:
Of which the pig-tail'd poets chant,
And pig-tailed Emperors pen the Ode;
And little-footed ladies learn
To handle with such easy wrist,
And pour with a bewitching turn
No true celestial can resist.
And here was flesh of swine, for which
As in old chronicles 'tis written,
Full many a princely ancient Briton
In hounds, and beeves, and pastures rich,
And lineage from the Deluge dated,
Bled in strife: but rareness made them
Have these Pagan honours paid them,
Contempt came when they propagated.
And here was pie — mysterious — cold;
Let no man name its composition!
The darkness of one small incision
Is all our reverence dare behold.
A faithless Age tells that & this,
By infidel analysis:
For us, we cannot view unblinking,
The lustrous morsels darkly winking
Nor wanted aught to fortify
An English heart, for every call
The day might make on it, and all
The tasks commanded from on high:
Whether to work with mind, or muscle,
With elements, or men to tussle,
Bear as loser, bow as winner,
Toil contented — until dinner.

And worthy of such welcome, they! —
The low sun-lighted chamber hums
With cheer, while from the cherry spray
Red Robin carols for his crumbs.
And Willie chirrups undeterr'd
By past or future's starving feature;
More like a butterfly, or bird,
Than triple-breathing human creature:
Than one who in a little boat
The mastless hulk of Memory tows
On fathomless deeps; and rows, and rows,
And scarce, and scarce can keep afloat.

He sings: — " Mount, mount thy harvest throne
" Broad Sun! and long delay there.
" The day's our own, the day's our own,
" And we'll help to make thee stay there.
" Things of Time & his mortal tribes,
" Are we; and the fore and the after,
" We'll leave to Heaven & all the scribes.
" For ours is the reign of laughter:
" Of laughter — of laughter!
" What's gone, claims the pen:
" What's to come all men
" Should arm to meet with laughter! "

Then wayward as a thrush, he changed
His notes, and still as blithely ranged: —

— " Up wi' the laverock early, early,
" High with the laverock early!
" And who would keep the blossom of sleep,
" Must up with laverock early.
" When field & river wi' freshness shiver,
" And dews are gray & pearly:
" And who would span the measure of man,
" Must up wi' the laverock early. "

Shifting again, with sparkling look,
A different tune his fancy took: —

— " Of Mother Nature's love to us,
" How better can she prove to us,
" Than with her service knowingly,
" To feast us so o'erflowingly?
" Then honour to the table she has spread!
" Nor is the thought irrational
" To name her favours national.
" Our fathers at such boards before,
" She feasted with like hoards before,
" Our children shall not fail them when we're dead! "

And with an o'erwise nodding head,
That chuckled at the thing he said: —

" — A better faith than this —
" What man can know, what man can know?
" The like, the like o' this —
" What land can show, what land can show?
" And is there aught amiss,
" On earth below, on earth below,
" When such a sight as this,
" Can cheer us so, can cheer us so? "

Dismantled Memory slips the tow,
The little boat leaps high & low;
The wind in every sail is shrill,
Let the wind drive it where it will!

But soon, with deeper feelings swelling,
The vision of the hour dissolved:
Far in the past his heart revolved
The morning chase, on Nancy dwelling.
And in a golden haze, and in
A land of glowing plenteousness,
And joyful faces, joyful din,
And mellowing Autumn gorgeousness,
She flew, clad with the sky; and fair
As she the milkwhite doe that flying,
Lured the black Rhenish baron where
His innocent Lady languish'd, dying. —

And to his host's uprousing rally
This sweet legend he related:
Telling how, in the wild Rhine Valley
A jealous Lord the Lady mated.
" And with both yearning breasts she loved him;
" And with requiting fervour moved him,
" And made his sullen castle ring
" With joyance in her gentle Spring.
" But ere the bridal dream came true
" When bliss & shame mix in one hue,
" And the young mother's pride could flutter
" Round that new name she long'd to utter;
" A trumpet sounding down the flood,
" Stung the dead hero in his blood;
" The wars of his embrace bereft her,
" And to disloyal eyes he left her.
" Left her till the vines were stain'd
" With Autumn thrice, ere he return'd:
" And with a double heart she yearn'd
" Towards him thro' the babe she strain'd.
" Up the stirrup as he rein'd
" His war-steed at the gate, she leapt;
" And with a woman's fear unfeign'd,
" Bade the nurse lift his child, and wept,
" She saw not thro' her happy tears,
" The fixt ferocious look he turn'd;
" She heard not in her singing ears,
" Those eager lips of love were spurn'd:
" She knew not there was treason plann'd;
" Till at a motion of his hand,
" Two ruffians seized the little child,
" And dragg'd her forth into the wild.
" But God was there: they could not do
" The hest they oft obey'd with ease;
" Nor with the glaze of murder view
" The noble Lady on her knees.
" They went their way, and she was spared;
" Like strangers to themselves they fared;
" And told the tale of blood, and took
" The fee, without its red rebuke.
" But little joy of eye had he
" Who graspt the proof, and gave the fee;
" And never could he lay his head
" Where once her beauty shared his bed.
" All day he chased o'er hill & hollow,
" And felt the wailing echoes follow;
" And in the savage nights he strode
" His steed, and like a spectre rode.
" So, on a noon, when thrice again
" The vines were purple, he spurr'd amain,
" And o'er the yellow sandhills drove
" The lither deer in copse and grove.
" And fast he flew, and fast they fled,
" Till each retainer was outrun,
" And nought was near him but the sun
" Behind the sandhills sinking red.
" He curst their tardy hooves in wrath,
" Hallooing to the echoes round,
" When startlingly across his path
" A creature like a star did bound;
" And starlike in the stealing dusk
" Wound on, and lured him, faint and lame,
" By caverns of the grunting tusk
" And coverts of the startling game.
" It was a doe, milkwhite, and fleet
" As elves of Elfland thro' the shade,
" All in the coming moonlight sweet,
" It glanced, and doubled, and delay'd.
" When as the hungry huntsman near'd
" To deal the death it disappear'd,
" And left him, by the fairy lake
" Where bird wings not, nor thirst can slake.
" A charm'd breeze broke the colouring wave,
" The woods in one mute circle rose;
" He turn'd, and by a brambly cave
" Beheld a glimmer as of twin does
" That on the grass together coucht:
" There by the doe a woman croucht;
" Babe on breast and combless tress,
" Shuddering in her nakedness.
" They met as strangers; her perforce
" He knew not from affliction's ravage;
" And he, the quarry of Remorse,
" His hunted eye glared dull & savage.
" And as a stranger, she told him, how,
" Her lover and lord for warrior pride,
" Her husband left her a young bride
" About to be a mother: — how,
" His household favorite had bought
" His soul, and her dishonor sought,
" While far her lord was fighting: how,
" She had forgiven him, not to vex
" Her husband, and his mind perplex
" Regarding one he loved: — the rest
" Was known too well in either breast.
" And she in the wild solitude
" Had wander'd with her child to languish,
" When in the loneliness of anguish,
" This fair creature from the wood
" Came forth, and at a gentle pace
" Approacht, and lickt her infant's face,
" And offer'd its milk for nourishment,
" This Creature by the Angels sent!
" And eyed her with dumb love, and put
" Strength in her with endearments mute:
" And to the softest moss did guide
" Her tired feet, with many signs
" The very-sadden'd heart divines:
" And never went once from her side.
" Making her know that God was by
" Even in a thing so humble, know
" That cheerfulness that's in the sky,
" The faith of innocence in woe.
" And she for sheltering warmth had lain
" Against the doe in ice & rain;
" And in the pleasant season stray'd
" Along the lake, and with it play'd.
" And she upon its milk had fed,
" And fed her child; and on the food
" Of wintry birds, and wild fruits shed
" At Autumn, had her life renew'd:
" Wild strawberries, and yewberries,
" And creeping bloomy dewberries,
" And berries of the bramble; fruits,
" And juicy harmless herbs and roots. — "

Here Willie ceased: the children clamour'd
" — Well, father, well? the end! the end! "
And sharp the farmer's fist down-hammer'd,
" — What did the fellow then, my friend! "

" — He hang'd the traitor at the gate:
" He brought his Lady home too late:
" She kiss'd their child, and once she sigh'd:
" On their old bridal bed she died. "

" — Died! — and the doe? — " all ask'd, much shock'd
To find their happy hopes delusion:
Their eyes on one another lock'd
At this abrupt and sad conclusion.

" — Ah! was it not enough for her
" To prove that Nature is indeed
" That Mother we so daily slur
" And never know but in our need!
" To prove that there is still beyond
" The brand of human loves & lies
" A bosom true and deep and fond
" To take the Soul that to it flies,
" Or is thrust forth! — that still doth flourish
" With ever-watchful power endued
" A great, dumb boundless love to nourish
" Innocence and womanhood! —
" So let the gentle beastie pass!
" She was this heavenly messenger: —
" Of such a one on yonder grass
" She seems the mission'd harbinger! "

And to the hearts of those who heard,
Made ripe by suffering & pain:
Exalting comfort in his Word,
Came on them as a choiring strain
Of old religious harmony
That sounds far off as one faint voice:
For he in Nature's majesty
And mystery made them rejoice.

Silent they were: and in that break
When holiest aspirations wake;
Morn-smitten from Oblivion's blindness; —
Look'd with subtler loving-kindness
Out on the gold-leaved glowing lawn,
Where lay the heroine of the dawn.