Lessons of Nature

Lessons of Nature

Heard ye the whisper of the breeze,

    As soft it murmured by,

Amid the shadowy forest trees?

    It tells, with meaning sigh,

Of the bowers of bliss on that viewless shore,
Where the weary spirit shall sin no more.

While sweet and low in crystal streams

    That glitter in the shade,

The music of an angel's dreams

    On bubbling keys are play'd;

And their echoes breathe with a mystic tone,
Of that home where the loved and the lost are gone.

And when at evening's silent hour,

    We stand on Ocean's shore.

And feel the soul-subduing power

    Of its mysterious roar,

There's a deep voice comes from its pearly caves,
Of that land of peace which no ocean laves.

And while the shadowy veil of night

    Sleeps on the mountain side,

And brilliants of unfathomed light

    Begem the concave wide,

There's a spell, a power, of harmonious love,
That is beckoning mute to the realms above.

And earth in all her temples wild,

    Of mountain, rock, and dell,

Speaks with maternal accents mild,

    Our doubting fears to quell,

Of another shore and a brighter sphere,
Where we haste on the wings of each flying year.

On nature's bright and pictured scroll

    Of speaking language see;

A pantomine the seasons roll,

    Of glorious imagery,

That reveal a life in this fading clay,
That shall wake again to a brighter day.

New Series 2:32, p. 128

1841.10.09

From the Knickerbocker