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Kneeling, he clasped it to his breast, He praised its wondrous birth, Fair, fragile, beautiful, and blest, The poetry of earth.

No secret fountain through its veins Sustaining vigor threw, No dew refreshed those arid plains, Yet there the stranger grew.

It seemed as if some tender friend, Beloved in childhood's day, A murmur through those leaves did send, A smile to cheer his way;

And fervently a prayer for those, In his own distant bower, Like incense from his heart uprose, Beside that Desert Flower.

For thus do Nature's hallowed charms Man's softened soul inspire, As to the infant in her arms, The mother points its sire.