Man and Nature

A sad man on a summer day
Did look upon the earth and say--

"Purple cloud the hill-top binding;
Folded hills the valleys wind in;
Valleys with fresh streams among you;
Streams with bosky trees along you;
Trees with many birds and blossoms;
Birds with music-trembling bosoms;
Blossoms dropping dews that wreathe you
To your fellow flowers beneath you;
Flowers that constellate on earth;
Earth that shakest to the mirth
Of the merry Titan Ocean,
All his shining hair in motion!
Why am I thus the only one
Who can be dark beneath the sun?"

But when the summer day was past,
He looked to heaven and smiled at last,
Self-answered so--
"Because, O cloud,
Pressing with thy crumpled shroud
Heavily on mountain top,--
Hills that almost seem to drop
Stricken with a misty death
To the valleys underneath,--
Valleys sighing with the torrent,--
Waters streaked with branches horrent,--
Branchless trees that shake your head
Wildly o'er your blossoms spread
Where the common flowers are found,--
Flowers with foreheads to the ground,--
Ground that shriekest while the sea
With his iron smiteth thee--
I am, besides, the only one
Who can be bright without the sun."