From the “Essay on Man,” Epistles I. and IV.
LO, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind:
His soul, proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or Milky Way:
Yet simple Nature to his hope has given,
Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heaven;
Some safer world in depth of woods...
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God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.Ye fearful, fresh courage take!
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big... -
From the Russian by Sir John Bowring
O THOU eternal One! whose presence bright
All space doth occupy, all motion guide—
Unchanged through time’s all-devastating flight!
Thou only God—there is no God beside!
Being above all beings! Mighty One,
Whom none can comprehend and none explore!
Who fill’st existence with Thyself alone—... -
Sonnet
THE World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for... -
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky;
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety. -
Five years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, 1 rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur.—Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild, secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion, and connect
The landscape with the quiet of... -
Come to these scenes of peace,
Where, to rivers murmuring,
The sweet birds all the summer sing,
Where cares and toil and sadness cease!
Stranger, does thy heart deplore
Friends whom thou wilt see no more?
Does thy wounded spirit prove
Pangs of hopeless, severed love?
Thee the stream that gushes clear,
Thee the birds that... -
Now the golden Morn aloft
Waves her dew-bespangled wing,
With vermeil cheek and whisper soft
She woos the tardy Spring:
Till April starts, and calls around
The sleeping fragrance from the ground,
And lightly o’er the living scene
Scatters his freshest, tenderest green.New-born flocks, in rustic dance,
Frisking ply... -
Wisdom and Spirit of the universe!
Thou Soul, that art the eternity of thought!
And giv’st to forms and images a breath
And everlasting motion! not in vain,
By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn
Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me
The passions that build up our human soul—
Not with the mean and vulgar works of Man,
... -
Up! up, my friend! and quit your books,
Or surely you ’ll grow double;
Up! up, my friend! and clear your looks!
Why all this toil and trouble?The sun, above the mountain’s head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.Books! ’t is a dull and endless...