AMOR VITÆ

I love the warm bare earth and all

That works and dreams thereon:

I love the seasons yet to fall:

I love the ages gone,

The valleys with the sheeted grain,

The river's smiling might,

The merry wind, the rustling rain,

The vastness of the night.

I love the morning's flame, the steep

Where down the vapour clings:

I love the clouds that float and sleep,

And every bird that sings.

I love the purple shower that pours

On far-off fields at even:

I love the pine-wood dusk whose floors

Are like the courts of heaven.

I love the heaven's azure span,

The grass beneath my feet:

I love the face of every man

Whose thought is swift and sweet.

I let the wrangling world go by,

And like an idle breath

Its echoes and its phantoms fly:

I care no jot for death.

Time like a Titan bright and strong

Spreads one enchanted gleam:

Each hour is but a fluted song,

And life a lofty dream.