MAN AND NATURE.
I.
THE mountains, and the forests, and the seas,
Oldest of mourners with pathetic tone, Have each a natural music, all their own, Set in accord with human destinies, Sad, tender, manifold. What is more sweet Than woodland melodies at noon ? More mild Than dimpled ocean, like a laughing child That lisps, and rolls a jewel to our feet, Breathlessly calm P And then, within an hour, Behold that self-same ocean on the shore Lashes; the forest quakes ; with deafening power The rocks are rent. Then, oh ! amid that roar Awe-struck we sink, we fall upon our knees, Ye mountains, and ye forests, and ye seas !
IL The mountains, and the forests, and the seas Have each their music, with our mortal lot In sympathy, to soothe, exalt, appease : And man too has his music; has a note Of worldwide sweetness ; tender reveries, Dirges of buried Misses unforgot, Rejoicing pmans, glorious symphonies : But all of them lack something; they have not The Voice once heard in Eden; and thaear, Pleased with rich sound, is as when some one sings In a great Court before a King of Kings : He closes; and of rapture born, a cheer Shakes the high roof; but when the Lord of all Speaks, there is awe and silence in the Hall.
A. G. B.
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