Page:The city of dreadful night - and other poems (IA cityofdreadfulni00thomrich).pdf/173

 But he alone amidst the troubled throng In restful ease diffused beneficence; Most like a mid-year noontide rich and strong, That fills the earth with fruitful life intense, And yet doth trance it all in sweetest indolence.

When summer reigns the joyous leaves and flowers Steal imperceptibly upon the tree; So stole upon him all his bounteous hours, So passive to their influence seemed he, So clothed they him with joy and majesty; Basking in ripest summer all his time, We blessed his shade and sang him songs of glee; The dew and sunbeams fed his perfect prime, And rooted broad and deep he broadly towered sublime.

Thus could he laugh those great and generous laughs Which made us love ourselves, the world, and him; And while they rang we felt as one who quaffs Some potent wine-cup dowered to the brim,