Nature

Beautiful World

by William Brighty Rands 1823–1882

From The Poets and the Poetry of the Century, ed. Alfred H. Miles

Nature

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,
With the wonderful water round you curled,
And the wonderful grass upon your breast —
World, you are beautifully drest.
The wonderful air is over me.
And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree,
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
And talks to itself on the top of the hills.

You friendly Earth! how far do you go,
With the wheat-fields that nod and the rivers that
flow,
With cities and gardens, and cliffs, and isles,
And people upon you for thousands of miles?
Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,
I tremble to think of you. World, at all;
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,

A whisper inside me seemed to say,
'You are more than the Earth, though you are such
a dot:
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot! '

MLA

Rands, William Brighty. “Beautiful World.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rands/2/.

Chicago

Rands, William Brighty. “Beautiful World.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rands/2/.

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