To Mother Nature

Nature, in thy largess, grant
I may be thy confidant!
Taste who will life's roadside cheer
(Tho' my heart doth hold it dear —
Song and wine and trees and grass,
All the joys that flash and pass),
I must put within my prayer
Gifts more intimate and rare.
Show me how dry branches throw
Such blue shadows on the snow, —
Tell me how the wind can fare
On his unseen feet of air, —
Show me how the spider's loom
Weaves the fabric from her womb, —
Lead me to those brooks of morn
Where a woman's laugh is born, —
Let me taste the sap that flows
Through the blushes of a rose,
Yea, and drain the blood which runs
From the heart of dying suns, —
Teach me how the butterfly
Guessed at immortality, —
Let me follow up the track
Of Love's deathless Zodiac
Where Joy climbs among the spheres
Circled by her moon of tears, —
Tell me how, when I forget
All the schools have taught me, yet
I recall each trivial thing
In a golden, far-off Spring, —
Give me whispered hints how I
May instruct my heart to fly
Where the baffling Vision gleams
Till I overtake my dreams,
And the impossible be done
When the Wish and Deed grow one!