Instinct in vain with humanity strives;
You can't understand the wonderful words
Or magical kisses that changed two lives!




What is Nature made for? is it for us
The beautiful world is burnish'd and blent?
If we had not eyes, would blossoms shine thus?
If we had not nostrils, would they have scent?

I heard a philosopher say--in isles
Surrounded by ocean, apart, alone,
With no living creature to reckon miles,
Wherein life had never been born or known,

That the clouds with electric flash may meet,
And thunder may rattle its dreadful breath,
Yet never a sound break the rest complete,
Or the silence of this eternal death;

That the fierce storm-wind may bluster and blow,
Tearing the trees from the root-broken ground,
Or the wild sea-surf may leap and may flow
In solemn silence with never a sound.

For sound is but the vibrations of air
That strike on the drum of the living ear;
So if never a living ear is there,