Page:Poems Denver.djvu/100

A place for prayer! here where the strong oaks twine
Their arms together—where the forest-vine;
Clinging like faithful love around her dead,
Forms of itself a bower: overhead,
Through the thick foliage, far and faintly gleam
The sky's unnumbered stars: like a sweet dream,
The rill goes singing in the old moon's light,
Gladdening beneath its rays—here when the night
Falls gently round me, I would raise my voice
To Heaven, to bid the "wilderness rejoice,"
And in its love divine, send to the dry
And barren heart a "day-spring from on high!"

Here would I raise an altar; loneliness
Should brood like peace around me: I would bless
The solitary hour, that gives to life
Strength to endure the trials of its strife;
And tears should be my offering. Who hath not
Some unforgotten sin, o'er which his thought
Hath pined in secret?
        And here too, the dim,
Deep woods should echo to my vesper-hymn,
And the wild bird would answer from the tree,
Pouring its notes of free-born melody,
Nature's own minstrel; here a cross should stand,
To point the traveller to a better land.