NATURE AND LIFE

Leave the uproar: at a leap

Thou shalt strike a woodland path,

Enter silence, not of sleep,

Under shadows, not of wrath;

Breath which is the spirit's bath

In the old Beginnings find,

And endow them with a mind,

Seed for seedling, swathe for swathe.

That gives Nature to us, this

Give we her, and so we kiss.

Fruitful is it so: but hear

How within the shell thou art,

Music sounds; nor other near

Can to such a tremor start.

Of the waves our life is part;

They our running harvests bear:

Back to them for manful air,

Laden with the woodland's heart!

That gives Battle to us, this

Give we it, and good the kiss.