Page:Poems (Bryant, 1821).djvu/38



, if thou hast learnt a truth which needs

Experience more than reason, that the world

Is full of guilt and misery; and hast known

Enough of all its sorrows, crimes and cares

To tire thee of it—enter this wild wood

And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade

Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze

That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm

To thy sick heart. Thou wilt find nothing here

Of all that pain’d thee in the haunts of men,

And made thee loathe thy life. The primal curse

Fell, it is true, upon the unsinning earth,

But not in vengeance. Misery is wed

To guilt. And hence these shades are still the abodes

Of undissembled gladness; the thick roof

Of green and stirring branches, is alive

And musical with birds, that sing and sport

In wantonness of spirit; while, below,