Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/336

POEMS OF NATURE THE SWALLOW

REFUGE IN NATURE

the rude world's relentless war has pressed

Fiercely upon them, and the hot campaign

Closes with battles lost, some yield their lives,

Or linger in the ruins of the fight—

Unwise, and comprehending not their fate,

Nor gathering that affluent recompense

Which the all-pitying Earth has yet in store.

Surely such men have never known the love

Of Nature; nor had recourse to her fount

Of calm delights, whose influences heal

The wounded spirits of her vanquished sons;

Nor ever—in those fruitful earlier days,

Wherein her manifest forms do most enrich

Our senses void of subtler cognizance—

Wandered in summer fields, climbed the free hills,

Pursued the murmuring music of her streams,

And found the borders of her sounding sea.

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