YE idle hours of summer, not in vain, To one by Nature's beauty fed, ye pass -- Though sending through the mental camera glass No philosophic lesson to the brain, But only pictures fair of shaded lane, Of dappled cows knee-deep in meadow grass; Bright hill-tops with their sloping forest mass, Or barn-roofs glimmering gray across the plain. Earth, air, and water, and the sacred skies Have something still to tell, not less, I ween, Than famous books the learned sages prize, Weighted with thought abstract and logic keen, Where Concord pores with metaphysic eyes O'er vasty deeps of the unknown and unseen. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES WRITTEN AT THE GRAVE OF ALEXANDER DUMAS by GWENDOLYN B. BENNETT TO CHLOE WHO FOR HIS SAKE WISHED HERSELF YOUNGER by WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT MORITURI SALUTAMUS [WE WHO ARE TO DIE SALUTE YOU] by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE SUNDEW by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE SHADOWS OF RECOLLECTION by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN IDYLL 2. EROS AND THE FOWLER by BION |