From thy will, stream the worlds, life and nature, thy dread Sabaoth: I will?- the mere atoms despise me! Why am I not loth To look that, even that in the face too? Why is it I dare Think but lightly of such impuissance? What stops my despair? This; 't is not what man Does which ex alts him, but what man Would do! 295 See the King-I would help him but cannot, the wishes fall through. Could I wrestle to raise him from sorrow, grow poor to enrich, To fill up his life, starve my own out, I would knowing which, For the hand still impelled me at once and supported, suppressed All the tumult, and quenched it with quiet, and holy behest, Till the rapture was shut in itself, and the earth sank to rest. Anon at the dawn, all that trouble had withered from earth Not so much, but I saw it die out in the day's tender birth; 325 In the gathered intensity brought to the gray of the hills; In the shuddering forests' held breath; in the sudden wind-thrills; In the startled wild beasts that bore off, each with eye sidling still, Though averted with wonder and dread; in the birds stiff and chill That rose heavily as I approached them, made stupid with awe: 330 E'en the serpent that slid away silent,- he felt the new law. The same stared in the white humid faces upturned by the flowers; The same worked in the heart of the cedar and moved the vine-bowers: And the little brooks witnessing murmured, persistent and low, With their obstinate, all but hushed voices -'E'en so, it is so!' (1845-1855) LOVE AMONG THE RUINS I 335 Where the quiet-colored end of evening smiles Miles and miles On the solitary pastures where our sheep Half-asleep |