By fate, not option, frugal Nature gave One scent to hyson and to wall-flower, One sound to pine-groves and to waterfalls, One aspect to the desert and the lake. It was her stern necessity: all things Are of one pattern made; bird, beast, and flower, Song, picture, form, space, thought, and character, Deceive us, seeming to be many things, And are but one. Beheld far off, they differ As God and devil; bring them to the mind, They dull its edge with their monotony. To know one element, explore another, And in the second reappears the first. The specious panorama of a year But multiplies the image of a day, -- A belt of mirrors round a taper's flame; And universal Nature, through her vast And crowded whole, an infinite paroquet, Repeats one note. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SENSE OF DIRECTION by KAREN SWENSON THE PRETTY MILKMAID by MOTHER GOOSE THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS SONGS OF THE SEA CHILDREN: 69 by BLISS CARMAN PURPLE AUTUMN by GEORGY IVANOVICH CHULKOV FREIGHTIN' by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. AN EPISTLE: ADDRESSED TO SIR THOMAS HAMNER (2) (VARIANT TEXT) by WILLIAM COLLINS (1721-1759) |