The Poems of Sidney Lanier by Sidney Lanier
page 83 of 312 (26%)
page 83 of 312 (26%)
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O'erseeing all that man but undersees;
To loiter down lone alleys of delight, And hear the beating of the hearts of trees, And think the thoughts that lilies speak in white By greenwood pools and pleasant passages; With healthy dreams a-dream in flesh and soul, To pace, in mighty meditations drawn, From out the forest to the open knoll Where much thyme is, whence blissful leagues of lawn Betwixt the fringing woods to southward roll By tender inclinations; mad with dawn, Ablaze with fires that flame in silver dew When each small globe doth glass the morning-star, Long ere the sun, sweet-smitten through and through With dappled revelations read afar, Suffused with saintly ecstasies of blue As all the holy eastern heavens are, -- To fare thus fervid to what daily toil Employs thy spirit in that larger Land Where thou art gone; to strive, but not to moil In nothings that do mar the artist's hand, Not drudge unriched, as grain rots back to soil, -- No profit out of death, -- going, yet still at stand, -- Giving what life is here in hand to-day For that that's in to-morrow's bush, perchance, -- Of this year's harvest none in the barn to lay, |
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