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42 | In This Our World And falls to new relation over me— I feel the unseen presence of the gods! Songs I O world of green, all shining, shifting! O world of blue, all living, lifting! O world where glassy waters smoothly roll! Fair earth, and heaven free, Ye are but part of me— Ye are my soul! O woman nature, shining, shifting! O woman creature, living, lifting! Come soft and still to one who waits thee here! Fair soul, both mine and free, Ye who are part of me, Appear! Appear! II How could I choose but weep? The poor bird lay asleep; For lack of food, for lack of breath, For lack of life he came to death— How could I choose but weep? How could I choose but smile? There was no lack the while! In bliss he did undo himself; Where life was full he slew himself— How could I choose but smile? Would ye but understand! Joy is on every hand! Ye shut your eyes and call it night, Ye grope and fall in seas of light— Would ye but understand! Heaven Thou bright mirage, that o’er man’s arduous way Hast hung in the hot sky, with fountains streaming, Cool marble domes, and palm-fronds waving, gleaming,— Vision of rest and peace to end the day! Now he is wearied, alone, astray, Spent with long labor, led by thy sweet seeming, Faint as the breath of Nature’s lightest dreaming, Thou waverest and vanishest away! T H E WOR L D | 43 Can Nature dream? Is God’s great sky deceiving? Where joy like that the clouds above us show Be sure the counterpart must lie below, Sweeter than hope, more blessed than believing! We lose the fair reflection of our home Because so near its gates our feet have come! Ballad of the Summer Sun It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, That highest growth has come to man in countries white with snow; And they tell of truth and wisdom that to northern folk belong, And claim the brain is feeble where the south winds always blow. They forget to read the story of the ages long ago: The lore that built the pyramids where still the simoon21 veers, The knowledge framing Tyrian ships,22 the greater skill that steers, The learning of the Hindu in his volumes never done,23 All the wisdom of Egyptians and the old Chaldean seers,24 Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, That courage bred of meeting cold makes martial bosoms glow; And they point to mighty generals the northern folk among, And call mankind emasculate where southern waters flow. They forget to look at history and see the nations grow! The cohorts of Assyrian kings,25 the Pharaohs’ charioteers,26 The march of Alexander,27 the Persians’ conquering spears,28 The legions of the Romans, from Ethiop to Hun,29 The power that mastered all the world and held it years on years,— Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. It is said that human nature needeth hardship to be strong, That only pain and suffering the power to feel bestow; And they show us noble artists made great by loss and wrong, And say the soul is lowered that hath pleasure without woe. They forget the perfect monuments that pleasure’s blessings show; The statue and the temple that no man living nears, Song and verse and music forever in the ears, The glory that remaineth while the sands of time shall run, The beauty of immortal art that never disappears,— Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. The faith of Thor and Odin,30 the creed of force and fears, Cruel gods that deal in death, the icebound soul reveres, But the Lord of Peace and Blessing was not one! Truth and Power and Beauty—Love that endeth tears— Came to man in summer lands beneath a summer sun. ...

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