Page:Psychology of the Unconscious (1916).djvu/510

 To Nature.

"While about thy veil I lingered, playing, And, like any bud, upon thee hung,[2] Still I felt thy heart in every straying  Sound about my heart that shook and clung. While I groped with faith and painful yearning,  To your picture, glowing and unfurled, Still I found a place for all my burning  Tears, and for my love I found a world!

"To the Sun my heart, before all others, Turned and felt its potent magicry; And it called the stars its little brothers,[3]  And it called the Spring, God's melody; And each breeze in groves or woodlands fruity  Held thy spirit—and that same sweet joy Moved the well-springs of my heart with beauty—  Those were golden days without alloy.

"Where the Spring is cool in every valley,[4] And the youngest bush and twig is green, And about the rocks the grasses rally,  And the branches show the sky between, There I lay, imbibing every flower  In a rapt, intoxicated glee, And, surrounded by a golden shower,  From their heights the clouds sank down to me.[5]

"Often, as a weary, wandering river Longs to join the ocean's placid mirth, I have wept and lost myself forever  In the fulness of thy love, O Earth! Then—with all the ardor of my being—  Forth I rushed from Time's slow apathy, Like a pilgrim home from travel, fleeing  To the arms of rapt Eternity.

"Blessed be childhood's golden dreams, their power Hid from me Life's dismal poverty: