Page:Songs of the Affections.pdf/14

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Shakes out response;—O thou rich world unseen! Thou curtain'd realm of spirits!—thus my cry Hath troubled air and silence—dost thou lie Spread all around, yet by some filmy screen Shut from us ever?—The resounding woods, Do their depths teem with marvels?—and the floods, And the pure fountains, leading secret veins Of quenchless melody through rock and hill, Have they bright dwellers?—are their lone domains Peopled with beauty, which may never still Our weary thirst of soul?—Cold, weak and cold, Is Earth's vain language, piercing not one fold Of our deep being!—Oh, for gifts more high! For a seer's glance to rend mortality! For a charm'd rod, to call from each dark shrine. The oracles divine!

I woke from those high fantasies, to know My kindred with the Earth—I woke to love:— O, gentle Friend! to love in doubt and woe, Shutting the heart the worshipp'd name above,