Quickens the Earth-life! kindles it
With restless will and zesty wit;
And, with the ardours of his soul,
The holy passions of his heart,
Stars the Earth-star anew, with Love,
Heroism, Worship, Wisdom, Art!
While Nature, shining, blooming, stands
Beside him, look!—a life akin,
Yet other. Can the Ocean sin?
Has the clean snow a heart, or the sweet sky warm hands?
Nature works, true; but does she toil, or tire?
Remorse, disgust, depression does she know?
Must she renounce, and does she need aspire?
Man on to God through grief, through want must go,
And up sore steeps of difficult desire;
While she, methinks, through Beauty’s open gate
Runs, and is with Him straight!
But both about their Earthly business go
Rhythmic—he quick and short, she gradual and slow;
Through both, great secret currents circulate,
Great world-tides flow, great world-waves undulate.
Movement and change, birth and decay and growth
Modulate both,
And some more subtle Mandate both obey
Whereby, akin yet contrast, they
Each other mould through interplay,
Ever they clasp, or clash, in love or strife,
And evermore the issue’s larger life—
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