Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/483

Rh Then first I knew the solace of the skies,

And that mysterious mingling of the soul

With the still beauty of the infinite whole;

My heart was melted, and grew strangely wise.

I was a child then, having little lore

Taken from books, or the wide world of men,

But something suddenly through my soul did pour

Beyond all thought, all dream, all hope; since then

Nor Death, nor Life, has been the same to me:

Can grief the spirit kill, once touched by deity?

THE WINDING PATH

winding path

Come let us follow

Along the lane

And down by the hollow;

For I would fain

The way it passes,—

Through the long grasses,

The meadows, the woods,—

Seek and learn it:

What the moods,

What true uses

Lead and turn it,

What abuses

Break it, cloak it,

Twist it, choke it.

Now 't is a span;

But onward still,

Over the hill

It wider grows,

It firmer flows.

The subtle path