_It is my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes_-- So was it sung one golden hour Among the woodbine wreaths; And yet, though wet with living dew, The song seemed far more sweet than true. Blind creatures of the sun and air I dreamed it but a dream That, like Narcissus, would confer With self in every stream, And to the leaves and boughs impart The tremors of a human heart. To-day a golden pinion stirred The world's Bethesda pool, And I believed the song I heard Nor put my heart to school; And through the rainbows of the dream I saw the gates of Eden gleam. The rain had ceased. The great hills rolled In silence to the deep: The gorse in waves of green and gold Perfumed their lonely sleep; And, at my feet, one elfin flower Drooped, blind with glories of the shower. I stooped--a giant from the sky-- Above its piteous shield, And, suddenly, the dream went by, And there--was heaven revealed! I stooped to pluck it; but my hand Paused, mid-way, o'er its fairyland. Not of mine own was that strange voice, "Pluck--tear a star from heaven!" Mine only was the awful choice To scoff and be forgiven Or hear the very grass I trod Whispering the gentle thoughts of God. I know not if the hill-flower's place Beneath that mighty sky, Its lonely and aspiring grace, Its beauty born to die, Touched me, I know it seemed to be Cherished by all Eternity. Man, doomed to crush at every stride A hundred lives like this Which by their weakness were allied, If by naught else, to his, Can only for a flash discern What passion through the whole doth yearn. Not into words can I distil The pity or the pain Which hallowing all that lonely hill Cried out "Refrain, refrain," Then breathed from earth and sky and sea, "Herein you did it unto Me." Somewhile that hill was heaven's own breast, The flower its joy and grief, Hugged close and fostered and caressed In every brief bright leaf: And, ere I went thro' sun and dew, I leant and gently touched it, too. ACTAEON "Who stood beside the naked Swift-footed And bound his forehead with Proserpine's hair." --BROWNING (_Pauline_) I _Light of beauty, O, "perfect in whiteness," Softly suffused thro' the world's dark shrouds, Kindling them all as they pass by thy brightness,-- Hills, men, cities,--a pageant of clouds, Thou to whom Life and Time surrender All earth's forms as to heaven's deep care, Who shall pierce to thy naked splendour, Bind his brows with thy hair?_ II