And vulgar feet have never trod A spot that is sacred to thought and God. O, when I am safe in my sylvan home, EACH AND ALL LITTLE thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown The heifer that lows in the upland farm, The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, Stops his horse, and lists with delight, Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height; ' Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. (All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair or good alone. I thought the sparrow's note from heaven, Singing at dawn on the alder bough; I brought him home, in his nest, at even; With the sun and the sand and the wild uproar. The lover watched his graceful maid, Nor knew her beauty's best attire Was woven still by the snow-white choir. At last she came to his hermitage, Like the bird from the woodlands to the cage; The gay enchantment was undone, A gentle wife, but fairy none. Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat; I leave it behind with the games of youth: '- The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath, I inhaled the violet's breath; Around me stood the oaks and firs; Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground; Over me soared the eternal sky, Full of light and of deity; Again I saw, again I heard, The rolling river, the morning bird; - THE PROBLEM I LIKE a church; I like a cowl; Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles; Would I that cowlèd churchman be. Why should the vest on him allure, Which I could not on me endure? Not from a vain or shallow thought Out from the heart of nature rolled The burdens of the Bible old; The hand that rounded Peter's dome And groined the aisles of Christian Rome - Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew ; The conscious stone to beauty grew.' Know'st thou what wove yon woodbird's nest Painting with morn each annual cell? Thy softest pleadings seem too bold, Thy praying lute will seem to scold; Though thou kept the straightest road, Yet thou errest far and broad. But thou shalt do as do the gods For of this lore be thou sure, - Though thou forget, the gods, secure, But make the statute of this land. Falls, in turn, a new degree. By beauty of a mortal child And by her radiant youth delighted, To bless that creature day and night; |