"We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understanding and our hearts." ~ William Hazlitt, English Writer, 1778-1830
(1817-1962)
O Nature! I do not aspire
To be the highest in thy quire,--
To be a meteor in the sky,
Or comet that may range on high;
Only a zephyr that may blow
Among the reeds by the river low;
Give me thy most privy place
Where to run my airy race.
In some withdrawn, unpublic mead
Let me sigh upon a reed,
Or in the woods, with leafy din,
Whisper the still evening in:
Some still work give me to do, --
Only -- be it near to you!
For I'd rather be thy child
And pupil, in the forest wild,
Than be the kind of men elsewhere,
And most sovereign slave of care:
To have one moment of thy dawn,
Than share the city's year forlorn.
This poem is in the public domain.


