The Retreat [pp. 589]

1871.] THE RETREAT 589
THE RE T R E A T.
HERE let us couch in fern,
And gaze adown the forest's dimin arcade,
Where little patches of bright sunlight burn,
Companioned of deep shade.
Hark! in the oak o'erhead
The cry of the young ravens, hunger-vexed
See, too, faint-scented lilies, richly fed,
Hint at the sweet old text.
How hushed the spot and still,
Save for a rustling squirrel frolicsome,
Or from a bird's heart leaps a silver trill,
Too happy to be dumb!
How the green lizards glide
Where, on that broklen bank, the sunbeams
sleep!
What beetles, by gemmed corselets glorified,
Among the grasses creep!
Note in yon patch of blue,
Far overhead the lacing boughs amongHis wings a bell, ringed where the light comes
through A hawk at hover hung!
Hush! not a stir-no word!
Here come the rabbits flitting through the
bent;
And, quick! a rail-see there! Ah, timid
bird,
The grass nods where it went!
And lo, the forest-king
Down yonder avenue, with wide-branched
brow,
Treads proudly! No alarms the breezes bring
To scare his big heart now!
Dragon-flies dart and poise
Above the pool that sleeps beneath the reeds;
All Nature's creatures drink that fount of joys,
Which from mere life proceeds.
How it all teems with life!
See here, this earth I scoop up in my hand,
With little busy workers how'tis rife,
Whose lives by days are spanned!
Drops from the mighty seaThe Far Existence —whence is drawn the
store,
That swells the full-pulsed veins of you and
me The same, nor less nor more.
Sharing His breath, you mark,
With us at the Creation's dawning dim:
What is'man's right to quench the tiniest spark
That took its light from Him?
Come,'friend, thank God with me
That we can lie within this woodland still,
And watch His works, how manifold they be With no desire to kill!
1871.]
TftE R?E TR-EA, T.
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