And armed with living spear for mortal fight; A cunning forager
That spreads no waste; a social builder; one In whom all busy offices unite
With all fine functions that afford delight.
Safe through the winter storm in quiet dwells!
And is She brought within the power Of vision? — o'er this tempting flower Hovering until the petals stay
Her flight, and take its voice away! Observe each wing! — a tiny van! The structure of her laden thigh, How fragile! yet of ancestry Mysteriously remote and high; High as the imperial front of man ; The roseate bloom on woman's cheek; The soaring eagle's curvèd beak ; The white plumes of the floating swan; Old as the tiger's paw, the lion's mane Ere shaken by that mood of stern disdain At which the desert trembles.
Thy sting was needless then, perchance unknown; The seeds of malice were not sown;
All creatures met in peace, from fierceness free, And no pride blended with their dignity.
Tears had not broken from their source;
Nor Anguish strayed from her Tartarean den; The golden years maintained a course
Not undiversified, though smooth and even;
We were not mocked with glimpse and shadow
Bright Seraphs mixed familiarly with men ; And earth and stars composed a universal heaven!
WHERE will they stop, those breathing Powers, The Spirits of the new-born flowers? They wander with the breeze, they wind Where'er the streams a passage find; Up from their native ground they rise In mute aërial harmonies;
From humble violet, modest thyme, Exhaled, the essential odors climb, As if no space below the sky
Their subtle flight could satisfy:
Heaven will not tax our thoughts with pride
If like ambition be their guide.
Roused by this kindliest of May showers, The spirit-quickener of the flowers,
That with moist virtue softly cleaves The buds, and freshens the young leaves, The birds pour forth their souls in notes Of rapture from a thousand throats, Here checked by too impetuous haste, While there the music runs to waste With bounty more and more enlarged, Till the whole air is overcharged; Give ear, O Man! to their appeal, And thirst for no inferior zeal, Thou, who canst think as well as feel.
Mount from the earth; aspire! aspire! So pleads the town's cathedral quire, In strains that from their solemn height Sink, to attain a loftier flight;
While incense from the altar breathes Rich fragrance in embodied wreaths; Or, flung from swinging censer, shrouds The taper-lights, and curls in clouds Around angelic Forms, the still Creation of the painter's skill, That on the service wait concealed One moment, and the next revealed.
Cast off your bonds, awake, arise, And for no transient ecstasies!
What else can mean the visual plea Of still or moving imagery, - The iterated summons loud,
Not wasted on the attendant crowd,
Nor wholly lost upon the throng Hurrying the busy streets along?
Alas! the sanctities combined By art to unsensualize the mind, Decay and languish; or, as creeds
And humors change, are spurned like weeds: The priests are from their altars thrust; Temples are levelled with the dust;
And solemn rites and awful forms Founder amid fanatic storms.
Yet evermore, through years renewed In undisturbed vicissitude
Of seasons balancing their flight On the swift wings of day and night, Kind Nature keeps a heavenly door Wide open for the scattered Poor. Where flower-breathed incense to the skies Is wafted in mute harmonies;
And ground fresh-cloven by the plough
Is fragrant with a humbler vow; Where birds and brooks from leafy dells Chime forth unwearied canticles,
And vapors magnify and spread The glory of the sun's bright head,— Still constant in her worship, still Conforming to the Eternal Will, Whether men sow or reap the fields, Divine monition Nature yields,
That not by bread alone we live,
Or what a hand of flesh can give;
That every day should leave some part Free for a sabbath of the heart:
So shall the seventh be truly blest,
From morn to eve, with hallowed rest.
WOULDST thou be taught, when sleep has taken flight,
By a sure voice that can most sweetly tell, How far off yet a glimpse of morning light, And if to lure the truant back be well, Forbear to covet a Repeater's stroke,
That, answering to thy touch, will sound the hour; Better provide thee with a Cuckoo-clock For service hung behind thy chamber door; And in due time the soft, spontaneous shock, The double note, as if with living power, Will to composure lead, or make thee blithe as bird in bower.
List, Cuckoo!-Cuckoo!- oft though tempests
Or nipping frost remind thee trees are bare,
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