Thoughts among the Trees

How beautiful you are, green trees! green trees!How nobly beautiful! Fain would I rest'Neath the broad shadow of your mantling arms,And lose the world's unquiet imageryIn the soft mist of dreams. Your curtaining veilShuts out the revelry and toil, that chafeThe city's denizens. Man wars with man,And brethren forage on each other's hearts,Throwing their life-blood in that crucibleWhich brings forth gold.Unceasingly we strive,And gaze at gauds, and cling to wind-swept reeds,Then darkly sink, and die.But here ye stand,Your moss-grown roots by hidden moisture fed,And on your towering heads the dews that fallFrom God's right hand. I love your sacred lore,And to the silence you have learn'd of HimBow down my spirit. Not a whispering leafUplifts itself, to mar the holy pauseOf meditation.Doth not wisdom dwellWith silence and with nature? From the throng

Of fierce communings or of feverish joys,So the sweet mother of the Lord of lifeTurn'd to the manger and its lowly train,And, mid their quiet ruminations, foundRefuge and room.Methinks an angel's wingFloats o'er your arch of verdure, glorious trees!Luring the soul above. O, ere we part,For soon I leave your blessed company,And seek the dusky paths of life again,Give me some gift, some token of your love,One holy thought, in heavenly silence born,That I may nurse it till we meet again.