Nature, in thy largess, grant
I may be thy confidant!
Taste who will life's roadside cheer
(Though my heart doth hold it dear -
Song and wine and trees and grass,
All the joys that flash and pass),
I must put within my prayer
Gifts more intimate and rare.
Show me how dry branches throw
Such blue shadows on the snow, -
Tell me how the wind can fare
On his unseen feet of air, -
Show me how the spider's loom
Weaves the fabric from her womb, -
Lead me to those brooks of morn
Where a woman's laugh is born, -
Let me taste the sap that flows
Through the blushes of a rose,
Yea, and drain the blood which runs
From the heart of dying suns, -
Teach me how the butterfly
Guessed at immortality, -
Let me follow up the track
Of Love's deathless Zodiac
Where Joy climbs among the spheres
Circled by her moon of tears, -
Tell me how, when I forget
All the schools have taught me, yet
I recall each trivial thing
In a golden far off Spring, -
Give me whispered hints how I
May instruct my heart to fly
Where the baffling Vision gleams
Till I overtake my dreams,
And the impossible be done
When the Wish and Deed grow one!