Page:Poems and lyrics of the joy of earth.djvu/96

Rh The secrets held by the creatures nearer than we
 * To earth he sought, and the link of their life with ours:

And where alike we are, unlike where, and the veined
 * Division, veined parallel, of a blood that flows

In them, in us, from the source by man unattained
 * Save marks he well what the mystical woods disclose.

And this he deemed might be boon of love to a breast
 * Embracing tenderly each little motive shape,

The prone, the flitting, who seek their food whither best
 * Their wits direct, whither best from their foes escape:

For closer drawn to our mother's natural milk,
 * As babes they learn where her motherly help is great:

They know the juice for the honey, juice for the silk,
 * And need they medical antidotes find them straight.