EARTH is His garment and also heaven, Its skirts are broadened from day to day By a million shining shuttles driven Through a formless woof till a form is given, And the suns break forth like the buds in May. The rushing river, the pulsing ocean, The clouds when they clash and find a voice, Are as folds that heave with a heart's emotion, That cling and swing with the dancer's motion When the sunburnt girls of the South rejoice. Lo, when the vision of Man perceiveth Beneath what all living eyes can see, The mighty and jubilant heart that heaveth, The Life that the dance of the forces weaveth, He trembles perceiving and bows the knee. And first he worships the Life in Nature, He fashions him gods of earth and sky, Strong lawless lords of the sentient creature, He lends them language and name and feature And an ear to hear when the nations cry. He rears him altars where clouds are driven Like dumb white surf on the rocks below. Set in the midst of the spacious heaven They watch while the world is tempest-riven, How the lamps of God serenely glow. But the years go by that deaden wonder, And mute in the desert of the mind He sits at last, while the wind and thunder Sweep past and the deep Earth trembles under, Yet the Spirit therein he cannot find. He cries, "Art silent and dark for ever, Thou Fear, Thou Light of the Universe? Wilt thou as soul from body sever The might of Thy word from Man's endeavour? Speak to us Thunderer, though to curse!" Answer, O Spirit, in exultation! Spirit of God that still doth move Over the deep of our Creation, Spirit of Man in aspiration, Answer with Mercy and Law and Love! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHARLES CARVILLE'S EYES by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON HIS PRAYER FOR ABSOLUTION by ROBERT HERRICK TO A PINE TREE by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL I WOULD BE THE SUN by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS MY MOTHER by FLORENCE R. ANDREWS A WATER MILL by ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA SAY NO MORE OF ME by ANNA EMILIA BAGSTAD TO BARON DE STONNE WITH AIKIN'S ESSAYS ON SONG-WRITING by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |