On the Heights

Here where the heather blooms
'Neath the blue skies,
Here let us rest awhile,
What if time flies,—
Joy yet awaiteth us
Ere the day dies.

See how the pathway creeps
Round the cliff" side;
Serpent-like seemeth it
Upward to glide:
Here 'mid the heather long
We will abide.

Nature around us lies
Placid and still, —
Nature! thy children, we
Wait on thy will;
Happy and silent here,
Here on thy hill.

Are we not part of thee,
Born of thee, thine?
Shall we not come to thee, —
Kneel' at thy shrine?
Nature, we turn to thee,
Thou art divine.

Peace that is sweet to us,
Strife for its leaven,
Hate that is hell to us,
Love that is heaven, —
These for our good, we know,
Us hast thou given.

Self-love, a secret force
Goading us on;
Sympathy holding us
Bound-fast in one, —
Creature to creature linked,
Father to son.

Hope in the morning, and
Strength at the noon,
Rest in the eventide,
These are thy boon;
Sleep, with the darkness, thou
Sendest, and soon.

Full well thou teachest us
Where'er we turn,
All that is meet for us
Earthborn to learn, —
From what is evil here
Good to discern.

This, too, we learn of thee,
This to be true, —
All things about us, both
Old things and new,
Pass, and the power of them
Fades as it grew.

While in the manifold
Births that unroll,
Shaping the universe,
Breathes but one soul, —
One long existence, — one
Infinite whole.