Welcome Earth, My natural heritage! and this soft turf, Thou large simplicity of this fair world, No soft frustration, flattering sigh or smile Of these sky-circled heights, and Presences Who seek not to exclude me or to slay, Therefore By him whom ye reject not, gracious Ones, Not all unworthy of the world; he casts Forth from him, never to resume again, Veiled nameless things, frauds of the unfilled heart, Fantastic pleasures, delicate sadnesses, The lurid, and the curious, and the occult, Coward sleights and shifts, the manners of the slave, And long unnatural uses of dim life. Hence with you! Robes of angels touch these heights Blown by pure winds and I lay hold upon them. Here is a perfect bell of purple heath, O'er which we hang as the bright bow of foam Hangs seven-hued where the endless cataract leaps. O now I guess why you have summoned me, Headlands and heights, to your companionship ; Confess that I this day am needful to you! The heavens were loaded with great light, the winds Brought you calm summer from a hundred fields, All night the stars had pricked you to desire, Her point of quivering passion and delight, Take me, the brain with various, subtile fold, The breast that knows swift joy, the vocal lips; I yield you here the cunning instrument Between your knees; now let the plectrum fall! “LA RÉVÉLATION PAR LE DÉSERT.” 66 Toujours le désert se montre à l'horizon, quand vous prononcez le nom de Jéhovah." EDGAR QUINET. Beyond the places haunted by the feet Of thoughts and swift desires, and where the eyes Who dip their urns in those enchanted meres A desert lifeless, bright, illimitable, The world's confine, o'er which no sighing goes I sat me down B |