An Old Lesson from the Fields

EVEN as I watched the daylight how it sped
From noon till eve, and saw the light wind pass
In long pale waves across the flashing grass,
And heard through all my dreams, wherever led,
The thin cicada singing overhead.
I felt what joyance all this nature has,
And saw myself made clear as in a glass,
How that my soul was for the most part dead.
O light, I cried, and heaven with all your blue ;
O earth, with all your sunny fruitfulness,
And ye tall lilies of the wind-vexed field,
What power and beauty life indeed might yield,
Could we but cast away its conscious stress,
Simple of heart, becoming even as you !